; but let me give you one
bit of advice, my dear fellow--don't think of speaking this session.
A Member can do no good at that work till he has learned something of
the forms of the House. The forms of the House are everything; upon
my word they are. This is Mr Vavasor, the new Member for the Chelsea
Districts."

Our friend was thus introduced to the doorkeeper, who smiled
familiarly, and seemed to wink his eye. Then George Vavasor passed
through into the House itself, under the wing of Mr Bott.

Vavasor, as he walked up the House to the Clerk's table and took the
oath and then walked down again, felt himself to be almost taken
aback by the little notice which was accorded to him. It was not that
he had expected to create a sensation, or that he had for a moment
thought on the subject, but the thing which he was doing was so
great to him, that the total indifference of those around him was a
surprise to him. After he had taken his seat, a few men came up by
degrees and shook hands with him; but it seemed, as they did so,
merely because they were passing that way. He was anxious not to
sit next to Mr Bott, but he found himself unable to avoid this
contiguity. That gentleman stuck to him pertinaciously, giving him
directions which, at the spur of the moment, he hardly knew how not
to obey. So he found himself sitting behind Mr Palliser, a little to
the right, while Mr Bott occupied the ear of the rising man.

There was a debate in progress, but it seemed to Vavasor, as soon
as he was able to become critical, to be but a dull affair, and yet
the Chancellor of the Exchequer was on his legs, and Mr Palliser
was watching him as a cat watches a mouse. The speaker was full of
figures, as becomes a Chancellor of the Exchequer; and as every new
budget of them fell from him, Mr Bott, with audible whispers, poured
into the ear of his chief certain calculations of his own, most of
which went to prove that the financier in office was altogether
wrong. Vavasor thought that he could see that Mr Palliser was
receiving more of his assistance than was palatable to him. He would
listen, if he did listen, without making any sign that he heard, and
would occasionally shake his head with symptoms of impatience. But
Mr Bott was a man not to be repressed by a trifle. When Mr Palliser
shook his head he became more assiduous than ever, and when Mr
Palliser slightly moved himself to the left, he boldly followed him.

No general debate arose o