at their elders on the Treasury Bench in a way that
was quite distressing to the sensitive organs of the party.

Sir Rupert and his adherents preached the new Toryism of that day--the
new Toryism which was to work wonders, which was to obliterate
Radicalism by doing in a practical Tory way, and conformably to the best
traditions of the kingdom, all that Radicalism dreamed of. Toryism, he
used to say in those hot-blooded, hot-headed days of his youth, Toryism
is the triumph of Truth, and the phrase became a catchword and a
watchword, and frivolous people called his little party the T. T.s--the
Triumphers of Truth. People versed in the political history of that day
and hour will remember how the newspapers were full of the T. T.s, and
what an amazing rejuvenescence of political force was supposed to be
behind them.

Then came a general election which carried the Tory Party into power,
and which proved the strength of Langley and his party. He was offered a
place in the new Government, and accepted it--the Under-Secretaryship
for India. Through one brilliant year he remained the most conspicuous
member of the Administration, irritating his colleagues by daring
speeches, by innovating schemes; alarming timid party-men by a Toryism
which in certain aspects was scarcely to be distinguished from the
reddest Radicalism. One brilliant year there was in which he blazed the
comet of a season. Then, thwarted in some enterprise, faced by a refusal
for some daring reform of Indian administration, he acted, as he had
acted always, impetuously.

One morning the 'Times' contained a long, fierce, witty, bitter letter
from Rupert Langley assailing the Government, its adherents, and, above
all, its leaders in the Lords. That same afternoon members coming to the
Chamber found Langley sitting, no longer on the Treasury Bench, but in
the corner seat of the second row below the gangway. It was soon known
all over the House, all over town, all over England, that Rupert Langley
had resigned his office. The news created no little amazement, some
consternation in certain quarters of the Tory camp, some amusement among
the Opposition sections. One or two of the extreme Radical papers made
overtures to Langley to cross the floor of the House, and enter into
alliance with men whose principles so largely resembled his own. These
overtures even took the form of a definite appeal on the part of Mr.
Wynter, M. P., then a rising Radical, who actually s