well that it was easy for him to gauge and appreciate the altered
state of affairs there. The centre of the town was swept clean at last
of those throngs of weary-faced men and youths looking for a job, the
factories were running full time-there seemed to his fancy to be even an
added briskness in the faces and the footsteps of the hurrying crowds of
people. Later on at the public dinner which he had come down to attend,
he was amply assured as to the sudden wave of prosperity which was
passing over the whole country. Mr. Bullsom, with an immense expanse
of white shirt, a white waistcoat and a scarlet camellia in his
button-hole, beamed and oozed amiability upon every one. Brooks he
grasped by both hands with a full return to his old cordiality,
indulgence in which he had rather avoided since he had been aware of the
social gulf between them.

"Brooks," he said, "I owe this to you. It was your suggestion. And I
don't think it's turned out so badly, eh? What do you think?"

"I think that you have found your proper sphere," Brooks answered,
smiling. "I can't think why you ever needed me to suggest it to you."

"My boy, I can't either," Mr. Bullsom declared. "This is one of the
proudest nights of my life. Do you know what we've done up there at
Westminster, eh? We've given this old country a new lease of life. How
they were all laughing at us up their sleeve, eh! Germans, and
Frenchmen, and Yankees. It's a horse of another colour now. John Bull
has found out how to protect himself. And, Brooks, my boy, it's been
mentioned to-night, and I'm a proud man when I think of it. There were
others who did the showy part of the work, of course, the speechmaking
and the bill-framing and all that, but I was the first man to set the
Protection snowball rolling. It wasn't much I had to say, but I said
it. A glass of wine with you, Sir Henry? With pleasure, sir!

"I wonder how long it will last," Brooks' neighbour remarked, cynically.
"The manufacturers are like a lot of children with a new toy. What
about the Colonies? What are they going to say about it?"

"We have no Colonies," Brooks answered, smiling. "You are only half an
Imperialist. Don't you know that they have been incorporated in the
British Empire?

"Hope they'll like it," his neighbour remarked, sardonically. "Plenty
of glory and a good price to pay for it. What licks me is that every
one seems to imagine that this Tariff Bill is going to give the
working-classes a le