opponents, had risen in his place to make an
unprovoked apology for having alluded in a recent speech to certain
protesting taxpayers as "skulkers." He had realized on reflection that
they were in all probability perfectly honest in their inability to
understand certain legal technicalities of the new finance laws. The
House had scarcely recovered from this sensation when Lord Hugo Sizzle
caused a further flutter of astonishment by going out of his way to
indulge in an outspoken appreciation of the fairness, loyalty, and
straightforwardness not only of the Chancellor, but of all the members
of the Cabinet. A wit had gravely suggested moving the adjournment of
the House in view of the unexpected circumstances that had arisen.

Belturbet anxiously skimmed over a further item of news printed
immediately below the Parliamentary report: "Wild cat found in an
exhausted condition in Palace Yard."

"Now I wonder which of them--" he mused, and then an appalling idea
came to him. "Supposing he's put them both into the same beast!" He
hurriedly ordered another prairie oyster.

Belturbet was known in his club as a strictly moderate drinker; his
consumption of alcoholic stimulants that day gave rise to considerable
comment.

The events of the next few days were piquantly bewildering to the world
at large; to Belturbet, who knew dimly what was happening, the
situation was fraught with recurring alarms. The old saying that in
politics it's the unexpected that always happens received a
justification that it had hitherto somewhat lacked, and the epidemic of
startling personal changes of front was not wholly confined to the
realm of actual politics. The eminent chocolate magnate, Sadbury,
whose antipathy to the Turf and everything connected with it was a
matter of general knowledge, had evidently been replaced by an
Angel-Sadbury, who proceeded to electrify the public by blossoming
forth as an owner of race-horses, giving as a reason his matured
conviction that the sport was, after all, one which gave healthy
open-air recreation to large numbers of people drawn from all classes
of the community, and incidentally stimulated the important industry of
horse-breeding. His colours, chocolate and cream hoops spangled with
pink stars, promised to become as popular as any on the Turf. At the
same time, in order to give effect to his condemnation of the evils
resulting from the spread of the gambling habit among wage-earning
classes