nued to write its summary. Fyffe came round
again in a week; but he never more took up the summary, leaving it in my
hands, with many words of kind encouragement.

It was in October, 1872, I joined the staff of the _Daily News_, having,
under Mr. Robinson's watchful eye, gone through a period of probation
as contributor of occasional articles descriptive of current events. I
might, in the ordinary course of events, have continued in that line, as
my friend and colleague Senior has done these twenty years, with honour
to himself and credit to the paper. But here, again, chance befell and
irresistibly led me back to the Press Gallery. In this very year a
change took place in a long-standing management of the _Daily News_
Parliamentary corps and the writing of its summary, and Mr. Robinson
designated me as successor of the gentleman who retired. It was a
curious and, in some respects, a delicate position, seeing that I was,
compared with some members of the staff, a mere chicken in point of age.
There were three who had been on the paper since it started, any one of
whom might, had Fortune favoured me in that direction, have been my
grandfather. But we got along admirably, they easing my path with kindly
counsel and the friendliest consideration.

[Illustration: MR. ROBINSON.]

[Illustration: THREE OLD MEN.]

It was different with some of the old hands on the other corps, who
bitterly resented the intrusion. I am not quite sure whether the two or
three who still survive have got over it yet. Certainly old "Charlie"
Ross, then and for some years after manager of the _Times_ staff,
carried the feeling to his honoured grave. After I had sat next but one
to him in the gallery for many Sessions he used, on encountering me in
the passage, to greet me with a startled expression, as if I were once
more an intruder, and would walk back to the outer doorkeeper (whom he
autocratically called Smeeth, because his name was Wright) to ask,
"Who's that?"

Old Ross's personal affront in this matter probably dated back to the
Session of 1872, when I took an occasional turn for a friend who was a
member of his staff. This was young Latimer, son of the proprietor of
the _Western Daily Mercury_, who had been called to the Bar and
occasionally got a brief on the Western Circuit. When he went out of
town I became his substitute in respect of his Parliamentary duties. It
was Mr. Ross's custom of an afternoon to seat himself on the bench in