ic which served our great-grandfathers in their
ambitious pursuit of notoriety has given place to the arts of audacity,
innovation, and the sublime courage of youthful insolence, which have
occasionally worked wonders in our own day.

Sydney had long been a close observer of the methods by which men gained
the ear of the House, and he had learned one or two things that were
very useful to him now that he was able to turn them to account.

"We have put the golden age behind us," he said one day to Dalton, with
the assured and confident air which gave him so much of his power
amongst men, "and also the silver age, and the age of brass. We are
living in the great newspaper age, and, if a public man wants to get
into a foremost place before he has begun to lose his teeth, he must
play steadily to the readers of the daily journals. In my small way I
have done this already, and now I am in the House, I shall make it my
business to study and humor, to some extent, the many-faced monster who
reads and reflects himself in the press. In other times a man had to
work himself up in _Hansard_ and the Standing Orders, to watch and
imitate the old Parliamentary hands, to listen for the whip and follow
close at heel; but, as I have often heard you say, we have changed all
that. Whatever else a man may do or leave undone, he must keep himself
in evidence; it is more important to be talked and written about
constantly than to be highly praised once in six months. I don't know
any other way of working the oracle than by doing or saying something
every day, clever or foolish, which will have a chance of getting into
print."

He spoke half in jest, yet he evidently more than half meant what he
said.

"At any rate, you have some recent instances to support your theory,"
Dalton said, with a smile. They were lighting their cigars, preparatory
to playing a fresh game of billiards, but Sydney was so much interested
in the conversation, that, instead of taking up his cue, he stood with
his back to the fire and continued it.

"Precisely so--there can be no doubt about it. Look at Flumley, and
Warrington, and Middlemist--three of our own fellows, without going any
further. What is there in them to command success, except not deserving
it, and knowing that they don't? The modest merit and perseverance
business is quite played out for any man of spirit. The only line to
take in these days is that of cheek, pluck, and devil-may-care."

"Do you