rty minutes in delivering the Government _non
possumus_, couched, of course, in the tone of deference to King Labour
which the modern statesman learns at his mother's knee, but enlivened
with a good deal of ironical and effective perplexity as to which hand
to shake and whose voice to follow, and winding up with a tribute of
compliment to Wharton, mixed with some neat mock condolence with the
Opposition under the ferocities of some others of its nominal friends.

Altogether, the finished performance of the old stager, the _habitue_.
While it was going on, Marcella noticed that Aldous Raeburn had come
back again to his seat next to the Speaker, who was his official chief.
Every now and then the Minister turned to him, and Raeburn handed him a
volume of Hansard or the copy of some Parliamentary Return whence the
great man was to quote. Marcella watched every movement; then from the
Government bench her eye sped across the House to Wharton sitting once
more buried in his hat, his arms folded in front of him. A little shiver
of excitement ran through her. The two men upon whom her life had so far
turned were once more in presence of, pitted against, each other--and
she, once more, looking on!

When the Home Secretary sat down, the House was growing restive with
thoughts of dinner, and a general movement had begun--when it was seen
that Bennett was up. Again men who had gone out came back, and those who
were still there resigned themselves. Bennett was a force in the House,
a man always listened to and universally respected, and the curiosity
felt as to the relations between him and this new star and would-be
leader had been for some time considerable.

When Bennett sat down, the importance of the member for West Brookshire,
both in the House and in the country, had risen a hundred per cent. A
man who over a great part of the north was in labour concerns the
unquestioned master of many legions, and whose political position had
hitherto been one of conspicuous moderation, even to his own hurt, had
given Wharton the warmest possible backing; had endorsed his proposals,
to their most contentious and doubtful details, and in a few generous
though still perhaps ambiguous words had let the House see what he
personally thought of the services rendered to labour as a whole during
the past five years, and to the weak and scattered group of Labour
members in particular, since his entrance into Parliament, by the young
and brilliant