lly welcomed, and addressed in confidence.
Not only were his claims acknowledged without being preferred, but an
evidently earnest hope was expressed that they might be fully satisfied.
No one had suffered more for the party and no one had worked harder
or more effectively for it. But at present nothing could be done and
nothing more could be said. All depended on Peel. Until he arrived
nothing could be arranged. Their duties were limited to provisionally
administering the affairs of the country until his appearance.

It was many days, even weeks, before that event could happen. The
messenger would travel to Rome night and day, but it was calculated that
nearly three weeks must elapse before his return. Mr. Ferrars then went
to the Carlton Club, which he had assisted in forming three or four
years before, and had established in a house of modern dimensions in
Charles Street, St. James. It was called then the Charles Street gang,
and none but the thoroughgoing cared to belong to it. Now he found it
flourishing in a magnificent mansion on Carlton Terrace, while in very
sight of its windows, on a plot of ground in Pall Mall, a palace was
rising to receive it. It counted already fifteen hundred members, who
had been selected by an omniscient and scrutinising committee, solely
with reference to their local influence throughout the country, and the
books were overflowing with impatient candidates of rank, and wealth,
and power.

Three years ago Ferrars had been one of the leading spirits of this
great confederacy, and now he entered the superb chamber, and it seemed
to him that he did not recognise a human being. Yet it was full to
overflowing, and excitement and anxiety and bustle were impressed on
every countenance. If he had heard some of the whispers and remarks,
as he entered and moved about, his self-complacency would scarcely have
been gratified.

"Who is that?" inquired a young M.P. of a brother senator not much more
experienced.

"Have not the remotest idea; never saw him before. Barron is speaking to
him; he will tell us. I say, Barron, who is your friend?"

"That is Ferrars!"

"Ferrars! who is he?"

"One of our best men. If all our fellows had fought like him against the
Reform Bill, that infernal measure would never have been carried."

"Oh! ah! I remember something now," said the young M.P., "but anything
that happened before the election of '32 I look upon as an old
almanack."

However, notwithstandi