ure which was intended to grapple
with the chaos arising from the multitude of opposing or overlapping
interests that controlled the domestic arrangements of the Londoner. An
effort was to be made to bring all the Gas, Electricity, Water, Paving,
and other corporations into some sort of line, and prevent them from
getting into each other's way and adding to the expenses and
inconvenience of the much-enduring ratepayer. It was a useful little
Bill; but though everybody approved of it on principle, various powerful
interests were at work against it, and its prospects of getting through
Committee hung in the balance.

"Now, Mr Champion," said Dilly, who knew that a man always likes to be
questioned about his work, especially by a pretty girl, "what will your
Bill do for _us_? I have asked this person here,"--indicating her
_fiance_,--"but he says parish-pump politics aren't in his department.
He licks stamps at the Foreign Office," she added in explanation.

"Tell her, Champion," said Dicky. "Out of my line altogether. Takes me
all my time to keep an eye on those Johnnies in the Concert of Europe."

"I will tell you one thing the Bill will do, Miss Dilly," said Champion,
a little heavily. (Dolly once said of him, "He's awfully clever and able
and all that, but he hasn't got a light hand for conversational
pastry.") "How many times have you noticed the streets up about here
this year?"

"Heaps," said Dilly.

"They have hardly ever been down," corroborated Dolly.

"Let me see," continued Dilly. "Our side of the Square was repaved in
January. Directly after that they took it up again and did something to
the drains."

"In March they opened it again to lay down an electric light main," said
I.

"In April something burst," said Dolly, "and that meant more men with
wigwams and braziers."

"And last month," concluded Dilly, "they took away the wood pavement and
relaid the whole Square with some new patent asphalte, which smelt
simply, oh----"

"Rotten!" supplied Gerald. (Have I mentioned that he had just arrived
home for his summer holiday?)

"Well," said Champion, "the Bill would regulate that sort of thing. It
would protect the streets from being torn up at will by any Company who
happened to have business underneath them. As things are, practically
any one may come along and hew holes anywhere he pleases."

"The police ought to stop it," said Kitty, who has a profound belief in
the Force. (I am convinced that i