re upright on the lone Pamirs. His attitude is of manifold
mien. Defiant of Russia, suspicious of ROSEBERY, patronising towards
Afghanistan, he takes young China familiarly by the elbow, and bids
it be of good cheer, for TOMMY BOWLES is its friend. Since NAPOLEON
crossed the Alps, and was caught in the act by the brush of the
painter, the world has not seen so moving a picture as TOMMY throned
on the grandly desolate Pamirs.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A PATRON OF OLD CHINA. (_Vide "China Bowles
Collection."_)]

* * * * *

House almost empty whilst the Talented One discoursed on the subject.
Mr. G., who misses nothing, happily in his place, listening with
eager hand at ear whilst TOMMY spoke familiarly of Asiatic rivers
and mountains, not one with name of less than five syllables. DICKY
TEMPLE, who really knows something about this mysterious region,
looked on in blank amazement at TOMMY'S erudition. EDWARD GREY, who
would presently have to answer this damaging attack, tried to seem
indifferent. But his young cheek paled when TOMMY put his ruthless
finger on that Foreign Office dispatch, out of which a line of print
had been dropped. This a Machiavellian device that had hitherto
escaped detection. TOMMY'S falcon eye had noted it, his relentless
foot had followed up the tracks, and he had discovered, on reference
to the original, that the criminally-deleted line of print embodied
a reference to the Oxus. That was all. "Only the Oxus!" he said,
with withering sarcasm. Then changing his tone and manner, he shook
a minatory forefinger at the shrinking form of the PREMIER, and cried
aloud, in voice strengthened with long warring with the winds on the
Pamirs: "Sir, the stream of the Oxus has been entirely omitted from
this paragraph."

"Poor Mr. G.!" said W. J. LOWTHER, present in his capacity as
Ex-Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "What with LABBY one night and
TOMMY BOWLES the next, he has a sad time of it."

"Yes," said PLUNKET, sole companion on the Front Bench. "It's a hard
fate for a Prime Minister to stand between L. and TOMMY."

_Business done._--Miscellaneous talk on going into Committee of
Supply.

_Thursday._--Little difficulty arisen in connection with Budget.
SQUIRE faced by deficit of million and half. This he met by expedient
that will be historical, as affording JOKIM opportunity for a popular
jape. The SQUIRE has dropped his penny in