il was over, and the gallant survivors
were steaming for Harwich in the tug-boat _Liverpool_.

CHAPTER XV.

A PEEP AT AN OLD HOUSE OF COMMONS FROM THE LADIES' GALLERY.

"No," Mrs. Chiltern-Hundreds said when I asked, Was she in these days
a constant visitor at the House of Commons? "Chiltern, you know, has
accepted a place of profit under the Crown, and is no longer eligible
to sit as a member. It is such trouble to get in, and when you are
there the chances are that nothing is going on, so I have given it up.
I remember very well the first time I was there. I wrote all about it
to an old schoolfellow. If you are interested in the subject, I will
show you a copy of what I then jotted down."

I was much interested, and when I saw the letter was glad I had
expressed my interest. The copy placed at my disposal was undated,
but internal evidence showed that Mrs. Chiltern-Hundreds had paid her
visit in the session of 1874, when Mr. Disraeli had for the first time
in his history been returned to power as well as to office, and Mr.
Gladstone, crushed by an overwhelming defeat, had written his famous
letter to "My dear Granville," announcing his retirement from
political life. Looking down through the _grille_, the visitor in the
gallery saw many bearers of well-known names who have travelled far
since that date, some beyond the grave. Here are Madame's notes
written in her own angular handwriting:--

"Be in the great hall at four o'clock."

Those were Chiltern's words to me as he hurried off after luncheon,
and here we were in the great hall, but there was no Chiltern,
which was vexatious. True, it was half-past four, and he is such a
stickler for what he calls punctuality, and has no sympathy with
those delays which are inseparable from going out in a new bonnet.
One of the strings----but there, what does it matter? Here we were
standing in the great hall, where we had been told to come, and no
one to meet us. There was a crowd of persons standing before the
entrance to a corridor to the left of the hall. Two policemen were
continually begging them to stand back and not block up the entrance,
so that the members who were passing in and out (I dare say on the
look-out for their wives, so that they should not be kept here a
moment) might not be inconvenienced. It is really wonderful how
careful the police about Westminster are of the sacred persons of
members. If I cross the road at the bottom of Parliament Street by