d speech to come into personal contact if both
pulling at same rope. But the liberal sartorial arrangements which
ARTHUR shared in common with less distinguished Members provided a
coat-tail apiece; so when idea or suggestion occurred to him, OLD
MORALITY tugged at the right-hand one, and when JOKIM had a happy
thought he hauled away on the left.

As both their minds were seething with ideas, ARTHUR had a lively time
of it, and complications of Bill grew in entanglement. Just as he was
assuming, for the sake of argument, that an advance of 30 millions had
been made under the Act for the Purchase of Land in Ireland, and that
seventeen years was about the average value under Lord ASHBOURNE'S Act,
there was a sudden tug of the right coat-tail; Prince leaned over in
that direction; OLD MORALITY whispered in his ear.

"Exactly!" said the Prince; "I was just going to show that the
instalment of 4 per cent. on the advance of 30 millions is L1,200,000 a
year. Very well; suppose that in one year, though the hypothesis is
utterly impossible, that not one single sixpence of annuity is paid. How
would that be?" (Here the left coat-tail was observed to be violently
agitated, and ARTHUR leaning over, JOKIM half-rising, eagerly explained
something.)

"Precisely. My right hon. friend reminds me, what indeed I was just
about to show, that there would be first the L200,000 reserve fund;
secondly, there would be the L200,000 annual probate grant; thirdly,
L40,000 of the new Exchequer contribution, and L75,000 of the quarter
per cent, local per-centage, and there would be besides that L1,118,000
of tenants' reserve. So that without touching the L5,000,000, which was
the landlords' fifth, and without touching a sixpence of the contingent
portion of the guarantee fund, you would have L1,633,000 to meet the
call of L1,200,000."

This prospect of boundless wealth, more especially the familiar way of
putting it, making it quite a personal matter for each Member that _he_
would have L1,633,000 to meet a call of L1,200,000, was designed to have
soothing effect on audience; would, indeed, have succeeded in that
direction but for the coat-tail accompaniment.

"JOKIM," said HARCOURT, "is too susceptible in his paternal feelings. We
know now who is the father of the progeny. Arranged that BALFOUR shall
bring it in for christening ceremony; shall dandle it in his arms, and
dilate on its excellences; but everyone can tell from the excited
manner,