gland."

"I hope you 're right, Davis. I almost feel as if you were," said
Beecher, earnestly.

"When did you find me in the wrong, so far as judgment went? Show me one
single mistake I ever made in a matter of opinion? Who was it foretold
that Bramston would bolt after the Cotteswold if Rugby didn't win?
Who told the whole yard at Tattersall's that Grimsby would sell
Holt's stable? Who saw that Rickman Turner was a coward, and would n't
fight?--and I said it, the very day they gave him 'the Bath' for his
services in China! I don't know much about books, nor do I pretend to;
but as to men and women--men best--I 'll back myself against all England
and the Channel Islands."

"And I 'll take as much as you 'll spare me out of your book, Grog,"
said Beecher, enthusiastically, while he filled his glass and drained
it.

"You see," said Davis, in a low, confidential tone, as if imparting a
great secret, "I've always remarked that the way they smash a fellow
in Parliament--I don't care in which House--is always by raking up
something or other he did years before. If he wrote a play, or a novel,
or a book of poems, they 're down on him at once, about his imagination
and his fancy,--that means, he never told a word of truth in his life.
If he was unfortunate in business, they 're sure to refer to him about
some change in the Law of Bankruptcy, and say, 'There's my honorable
friend yonder ought to be able to help us by his experiences!' Then,
if a fellow has only his wits about him, how he floors them! You see
there's a great deal of capital to be made out of one of these attacks.
You rise to reply, without any anger or passion; only dignity,--nothing
but dignity! You appeal to the House if the assault of the right
honorable baronet opposite was strictly in good taste,--whatever
that means. You ask why you are signalled out to be the mark of his
eloquence, or his wit, or whatever it be; and then you come out with a
fine account of yourself, and all the honorable motives that nobody ever
suspected you of. That's the moment to praise everything you ever did,
or meant to do, or couldn't do; that's the time to show them what a man
they have amongst them."

"Capital, glorious, excellent!" cried Beecher, in delight "Well, suppose
now," said Davis, "there 's a bill about marriages,--they 're always
changing the law about them; it's evidently a contract does n't work
quite smoothly for all parties,--well, there's sure to be many a s