and others leaving. He could look up
at the gallery without turning his head, and sometimes he caught her
momentary glance, and again, with her chin in her hand, she was watching
Mr. Crewe with a little smile creasing the corners of her eyes.

A horrible thought crossed Austen's mind--perhaps they were not his
violets after all! Because she had smiled at him, yesterday and to-day,
he had soared heavenwards on wings of his own making. Perhaps they were
Mr. Crewe's violets. Had she not come to visit Mr. Crewe, to listen to
his piece de resistance, without knowing that he, Austen Vane, would be
in the capital? The idea that her interest in Austen Vane was possibly
connected with the study of mankind had a sobering effect on him; and
the notion that she had another sort of interest in Mr. Crewe seemed
ridiculous enough, but disturbing, and supported by feats.

Austen had reached this phase in his reflections when he was aroused by
a metallic sound which arose above the resonant tones of the orator
of the day. A certain vessel, to the use of which, according to Mr.
Dickens, the satire male portion of the American nation was at one time
addicted,--a cuspidor, in plain language,--had been started, by some
unknown agency in the back seats, rolling down the centre aisle, and
gathering impetus as it went, bumped the louder on each successive step
until it hurled itself with a clash against the clerk's desk, at the
feet of the orator himself. During its descent a titter arose which
gradually swelled into a roar of laughter, and Austen's attention was
once more focused upon the member from Leith. But if any man had so
misjudged the quality of Humphrey Crewe as to suppose for an instant
that he could be put out of countenance by such a manoeuvre, that man
was mightily mistaken. Mr. Crewe paused, with his forefinger on the
page, and fixed a glassy eye on the remote neighbourhood in the back
seats where the disturbance had started.

"I am much obliged to the gentleman," he said coldly, "but he has sent
me an article which I never use, under any conditions. I would not
deprive him of its convenience."

Whereupon, it is not too much to say, Mr. Crews was accorded an ovation,
led by his stanch friend and admirer, the Honourable Jacob Botcher,
although that worthy had been known to use the article in question.

Mr. Speaker Doby glanced at the faithful clock, and arose majestically.

"I regret to say," he announced, "that the time of