lmost grateful, that I forgot every thing else in the
world. A few moments afterwards a friend of Lady Glanville's was
announced, and I left the room.

CHAPTER LV.

Intus et in jecore aegro, Nascuntur domini.--Persius.

The next two or three days I spent in visiting all my male friends in
the Lower House, and engaging them to dine with me, preparatory to the
great act of voting on--'s motion. I led them myself to the House
of Commons, and not feeling sufficiently interested in the debate to
remain, as a stranger, where I ought, in my own opinion, to have acted
as a performer, I went to Brookes's to wait the result. Lord Gravelton,
a stout, bluff, six-foot nobleman, with a voice like a Stentor, was
"blowing up" the waiters in the coffee-room. Mr.--, the author of
T--, was conning the Courier in a corner; and Lord Armadilleros, the
haughtiest and most honourable peer in the calendar, was monopolizing
the drawing-room, with his right foot on one hob and his left on the
other. I sat myself down in silence, and looked over the "crack article"
in the Edinburgh. By and by, the room got fuller; every one spoke of the
motion before the House, and anticipated the merits of the speeches, and
the numbers of the voters.

At last a principal member entered--a crowd gathered round him. "I have
heard," he said, "the most extraordinary speech, for the combination of
knowledge and imagination, that I ever recollect to have listened to."

"From Gaskell, I suppose?" was the universal cry.

"No," said Mr.--, "Gaskell has not yet spoken. It was from a young
man who has only just taken his seat. It was received with the most
unanimous cheers, and was, indeed, a remarkable display."

"What is his name?" I asked, already half foreboding the answer.

"I only just learnt it as I left the House," replied Mr.--: "the speaker
was Sir Reginald Glanville."

Then every one whom I had often before heard censure Glanville for his
rudeness, or laugh at him for his eccentricity, opened their mouths in
congratulations to their own wisdom, for having long admired his talents
and predicted his success.

I left the "turba Remi sequens fortunam;" I felt agitated and feverish;
those who have unexpectedly heard of the success of a man for whom
great affection is blended with greater interest, can understand the
restlessness of mind with which I wandered into the streets. The air was
cold and nipping. I was buttoning my coat round my chest, when I