ember of the company into
following him. One young man, just called to the bar, had a promising
career almost cut short on the second day. In the innocence of his
heart he had followed the Patriarch, who led him through an apparently
impassable pine forest on to the crest of a remote hill, whence he
crawled down an hour late for luncheon, the Patriarch having arrived
ten minutes before him, and having already had his knife into every
receptacle for food that was spread out, from the loaf of bread to the
box of sardines, from the preserved peaches to the cup without a handle
that held the butter.

Walking up the hill behind the hotel on the way to the Jaman, the Member
had a happy idea. "Why," he asked, "should not the Parliamentary Session
be movable, like a reading party? Say the Bankruptcy Bill is referred
to a grand committee. What is to prevent them coming right off here and
settling down for a fortnight or three weeks, or in fact whatever time
might be necessary thoroughly to discuss the measure?"

They might do worse, we agreed, as we walked on, carefully selecting
the shady side of the road, and thinking of dear friends shivering in
England. The blue haze under which we know the lake lies; the Alps all
around, their green sides laced with snow and their heads covered with
it; the fleckless blue sky; the brown rocks, and over all and through
all the murmuring music of the invisible stream, as it trickles on its
way down the gorge, would be better accompaniments to a good grind at a
difficult Bill than any to be found within the precincts of Westminster.

"You remember what Virgil says?" the Chancery Barrister strikes in.

Divers things of diverse character we have discovered invariably remind
the Chancery Barrister of Virgil or Horace, occasionally perchance of
an English poet. This is very pleasant, and none the less so because
the reminiscences come slowly, gathering strength as they advance, like
the Chancery Barrister's laugh, which begins like the pattering of rain
on leaves, and ends in the roar of a thunderstorm. The Chancery
Barrister takes his jokes gently to begin with: he sees them afar off,
and, closing one eye, begins to smile. The smile broadens to a grin, the
grin becomes a cachinnation, then, as he hugs the fun, the cachinnation
deepens to a roar of laughter, and the thing is complete.

It is thus with his quotations, though these are not always
completed--at least, not in accordance with recog