I don't feel like it to-night. Do you know any members of Parliament,
any Cabinet Ministers?'

'Yes, a few. Why?'

'I want to go to the House of Commons. I want to know what those men who
are guiding our affairs are thinking.'

'Oh, all right,' I laughed. 'I can easily get a permit to the House of
Commons. I'll take you. As it happens, too, I can get you an
introduction to one or two members of the Government.'

Two hours later, we were sitting in the Strangers' Gallery of the House
of Commons. I could see that Edgecumbe was impressed, not by the
magnificence of the surroundings, for, as all the world knows, the
interior of the British House of Commons,--that is the great Legislative
Chamber itself,--is not very imposing, but he was excited by the fact
that he was there in the Mother of Parliaments, listening to a debate on
the Great War.

'It's wonderful, isn't it?' he said to me. 'Here we are in the very hub
of the British Empire,--here decisions are come to which affect the
destiny of hundreds of millions of people. Here, as far as the
Government is concerned, we can look into the very inwardness of the
British mind, its hopes, its ideals. If this Assembly were so to decide,
the war could stop to-morrow, and every soldier be brought home.'

'I don't know,' I laughed. 'Behind this Assembly is the voice of the
country. If these men did not represent the thoughts and feelings of the
nation, they'd be sent about their business,--there'd be a revolution.'

'Yes, yes, I realize that. And the fact that there is no revolution
shows that they are doing, on the whole, what the country wishes them.'

'I suppose so,' I replied.

After that, he listened two hours without speaking. I never saw a man so
intent upon what was being said. Speaker after speaker expressed his
views, and argued the points nearest his heart.

At the end of two hours, there was a large exodus of members, and then
Edgecumbe rose like a man waking out of a trance.

'Have you been interested?' I asked.

'Never so interested in my life,--it was wonderful! But look here, my
friend, do these men believe in Almighty God? Have they been asking for
guidance on their deliberations?'

'I don't know. We English are not people who talk about that kind of
thing lightly.'

'No, and I am glad of it,' he replied earnestly, 'but I must come again.
In a sense, this should be the Power-House of the nation.'

'It is,' I replied; 'at this pla