the night porter conducted him to
the bedroom door of the sleeping senator. Succeeding in awakening him,
he delivered his message.

"Give my compliments to Lord Richard Grosvenor," said the wife of the
still somnolent M.P.; "tell him my husband has gone to bed, and is
paired for the night."

[Sidenote: BARE-HEADED.]

It is an old tradition, observed to this day, though the origin of it is
lost in the obscurity of the Middle Ages, that a Whip shall not appear
in the Lobby with his head covered. It is true Mr. Marjoribanks does not
observe this rule, but he is alone in the exception. All his
predecessors, as far as I can remember, conformed to the regulation. In
the last Parliament the earliest intimation of the formation of a new
Radical party was the appearance in the Lobby of Mr. Jacoby without his
hat. Inquiry excited by this phenomenon led to the disclosure that the
Liberal opposition had broken off into a new section. There was some
doubt as to who was the leader, but none as to the fact that Mr. Jacoby
and Mr. Philip Stanhope were the Whips. Mr. Stanhope was not much in
evidence. But on the day Mr. Jacoby accepted the appointment he locked
up his hat and patrolled the Lobby with an air of sagacity and an
appearance of brooding over State secrets, which at once raised the new
party into a position of importance.

[Illustration: MR. JACOBY.]

Dick Power, most delightful of Irishmen, most popular of Whips, made
through the Session regular play with his hat. Anyone familiar with his
habits would know how the land lay from the Irish quarter. If Mr. Power
appeared hatless in the Lobby, a storm was brewing, and before the
Speaker left the chair there would, so to speak, be wigs on the green.
If his genial face beamed from under his hat as he walked about the
Lobby the weather was set fair, at least for the sitting.

[Sidenote: THE WINSOME WIGGIN.]

One of the duties of the junior Whips is to keep sentry-go at the door
leading from the Lobby to the cloak-room, and so out into Palace Yard.
When a division is expected, no member may pass out unless he is paired.
That is not the only way by which escape from the House may be made. A
member desirous of evading the scrutiny of the Whips might find at least
two other ways of quitting the House. It is, however, a point of honour
to use only this means of exit, and no member under whatsoever pressure
would think of skulking out.

For many nights through long Sessions, Lo