lieve in some measure of protection. I
am a firm believer in it. But the House wouldn't listen to me. The
times are not ripe for anything of the sort yet."

"How do you know until you try?" Brooks protested. "Your promise was to
bring the question before Parliament in connection with the vast and
increasing number of unemployed. You are within your rights in doing
so, and to speak frankly we insist upon it, or we ask for your
resignation."

"Are you speaking with authority, young man?" Mr. Henslow asked.

"Of course I am. I am the representative of the Liberal Parliamentary
Committee, and I am empowered to say these things to you, and more.

"Well, I'll do the best I can to get a date," Mr. Henslow said,
grumblingly, "but you fellows are always in such a hurry, and you don't
understand that it don't go up here. We have to wait our time month
after month sometimes."

"I don't see any motion down in your name at all yet," Brooks remarked.

"I told you that Sir Henry struck it through."

"Then I shall call upon him and point out that he is throwing away a
Liberal seat at the next election," Brooks replied. "He isn't the sort
of man to encourage a Member to break his election pledges."

"You'll make a mess of the whole thing if you do anything of the sort,"
Henslow declared. "Look here, come and have a bit of dinner with me,
and talk things over a bit more pleasantly, eh? There's no use in
getting our rags out."

"Please excuse me," Brooks said. "I have arranged to dine elsewhere. I
do not wish to seem dictatorial or unreasonable, but I have just come
from Medchester, where the distress is, if anything, worse than ever.
It makes one's heart sick to walk the streets, and when I look into the
people's faces I seem to always hear that great shout of hope and
enthusiasm which your speech in the market-place evoked. You see, there
is only one real hope for these people, and that is legislation, and you
are the man directly responsible to them for that."

"I'll tell you what I'll do!" Mr. Henslow said, in a burst of
generosity. "I'll send another ten guineas to the Unemployed Fund."

"Take my advice and don't," Brooks answered, dryly. "They might be
reminded of the people who clamoured for bread and were offered a stone.
Do your duty here. Keep your pledges. Speak in the House with the same
passion and the same eloquence as when you sowed hope in the heart of
those suffering thousands. Some one must break away from th