zcaya.

Along its walls are large and comfortable sofas where the deputies and
the newspaper men, who help them in the laborious task of saving the
country, can rest for a few moments. And if they wish to refresh or
restore their failing strength, there is, also, a lunch-room where the
nation furnishes its managers, gratis, with water and _azucarillos_[13]
in great abundance, and where, for a moderate price, they can get ham,
turkey, pies, sherry, and Manzanilla, and other foods and drinks.

Intelligent and zealous waiters, as soon as they come in, relieve them
of their overcoats, which they guard with care, and return after they
have lunched, lest in any way they should catch cold.

Miguel was greatly impressed, when he first attended a meeting of the
Congress, by the humility and deep respect shown by a waiter taking a
fur overcoat from a gentleman with a long white goatee, who allowed him
to do so, with a solemn and peevish expression, moving his head from one
side to the other as though he could not hold it up with the weight of
thoughts that filled it.

Afterwards he chanced to see this same gentleman in the lunch-room,
taking a few slices of scalloped tongue; he had the same thoughtful,
reserved, imposing air.

He was glad to know that his name was Senor Tarabilla, who had been
governor of several of the provinces, superior honorary chief of the
civil administration, and the holder of various other distinguished
offices in Madrid and elsewhere. He had also been secretary of the
committee of acts in the Congress, where once he had draughted a
private bill which had never reached discussion.

Our hero enjoyed one of the purest satisfactions of his life in becoming
acquainted with a personage of so great importance in politics, and he
made up his mind to go on and gradually know them all in the same way.
He used to go round from group to group, listening attentively to the
discussions that were taking place among the most distinguished leaders
of men. It was his duty to acquaint himself with their opinions and
plans, so as to conduct his journal dexterously. He was surprised by
some of these private debates, but especially at one which he overheard
a few days after he entered the _salon de conferencias_.

In the centre of a large and crowded group there was a lively discussion
going on between a minister and one of the leaders of the opposition
concerning a certain article in the constitution of 1845, in which