The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-17
CHAPTER XVII.
eEogTREY's Tn1uMpHs IN THE COMMONS

CHAPTER XVII.
GEoEFREY's TAIUMPHS IN THE COMMONS.
And now the house of commons might van
ish into the bottomless abyss, and take the
house of lords and what remained of tho
British constitution with it and she should
never miss them. Fer, at the best of times.
Beatrlce-in common with most of her sex
i'll all gratitude be it said, was not an ardent
politician.
There Godfrey sat, his arms folded-the
hat pushed slightly from his forehead, SO that
she could see his face. There was her own
beloved, whom she had come SO far to seq.
and whom tomorrow she would dare SO
much to save. How sad he looked-he did
not seem to be paying much attention TO what
was going on. She knew well enough that
he was thinking Of heri she could feel it in
her head asshe had often felt it before. But
she dared not let her mind go out to him in
answer, for, IL once she did so, she knew also
, that he would discover her. So she sat, and
fed her eyes upon his face, taking her fare
/ well of io, while round her and beneath her
the hum of the house went on, as ever present
and as unnotced as the hum Of bees upon n
summer noon.
Presently the gentleman who had been so
kind to her sat down in the next seat to Ge-
| oifrey, and began to whisper to him, as he
| did SO CHANGING once OF twice towards the
| grating behind which she was She guessed
that he was telling him the story Of the lady
| who was so unaccoantably anxious to hear the
debate, and how pretty she was. But it did
not seem to interest Godfrey much, and Be
atrice was feminine enough to notice it, and
| be glad of it. In her gentle jealousy she did
not like to think OF Godfrey as being interest
ed i'll accounts of mysterious ladies' however
pretty.
At length speaker rose; she understood
from the murmur of those around her that he
was one OF the leaders of the opposition, and
commenced a powerful and bitter speech.
She noticed that Godfrey reused himself at
this point, and began to listen with attention.
| Look" said one of the ladies near her.
''Mr. Bingham is taking notes. He is going
to speak next-he speaks wonderfully, you
know. They say he is as good as anybody in
the house, except Gladstone and Lord Ran
dolph.n
"Ohr' answered another lady, "Lady Ho-
noria is not here, is she? l don'5 see her,"
"No," replied the first; ''she is dear crea-
ture, and SO handsome, too-just the wife for
a rising man-but l don't think that she
takes much interest in politics Are not her
dinners char1ningm
! At this moment a volley of applause from
the opposition benches drowned the MUIR
INJURED conversation.
/ This speaker spoke for about three-ouarters
of an hour, and then at last Godfrey got on
to his legs. One or two other members rose
at the same time, but they gave way
} Hn Gle -lo4t IL,
it seemed to Beatrice, whose heart was in her
mouth-but when he had been speaking for
about five minutes he warmed up. And
then began one of the most remarkable
oratorical- displays of that parliament.
Godfrey had spoken we'll before, and
would speak we'll again; but perhaps
he never spoke 50 well as he did upon
thct night For nearly an hour and a half
he held the house in chains; even the boots
and Interruptions died away toward the end
of the Grafton His powerful presence
seemed to tower i'll the place, like that of a
giant among pigmies, and his dark, hand
some face, lit with the fires of eloquence,
shone like lamp. He leaned forward with a
slight stoop of his broad shoulders, and adj
dressed himself, nonlirolly TO the speaker, but
really to the opposition. He took their facts
one by one, and with convincing logic
showed that they were no facts; amid q hiss
of anger he pulverized their arguments and
demonstrated their motives. Then suddenly
he dropped them altogether, and, addressing
himself to the house at large, and the coun-
try beyond the house, he struck another
note, and broke out into That storm of patri-
otto eloquence which confirmed his growing
reputation, both in parliament and in the
constituencies.
Beatrice shut her eyes and listened to the
deep, rich voice as it rose from height to height
and power to power, till the whole place
seemed full of it, and every contending sound
was hushed
Suddenly, after an invocation that would
! have been passionate had it not been SO re-
strained and strong, he stopped. She opened
her eyes and looked Godfrey was seated as
before, with his hat on. He had been speak
ing for an hour and O. half, and yet, to her, it
seemed but few minutes since he rose Then
broke out volley of cheers, in the midst of
which q leader OF the opposition rose to reply,
not in the very best of tempers, for Geoff-
rey's speech had hit them hard.
He began, however, by complimenting the
honorable member on his speech, ''as fine a
speech as he had listened to for many wears,
though, unfortunately, made from mistaken
standpoint and the wrong side of the house"
= Then he twitted the government with not
having secured the services of a man SO inf
niteiy ADLER than the majority of their
Items" and excited good deal of amuse-
ment by stating, with some sarcastic humor
that, should it ever be his lot to occupy the
front treasury bench, he should certainly
make a certain proposal to the honorable
member. After this good natured badinage,
he drifted of into the consideration of the
question under discussion, and Beatrice paid
20 further attention to him, but occupied
herself in Watching Godfrey drop back into
the same apparent state of cold indifference
from which the necessity of action had
aroused him.
Presently the gentleman who had found her
the seat came up and spoke to her, asking
her how she was getting on. Very SOON he
began to speak of Geolfrey's speech, saying
that it was ono of tho most brilliant of the
session, if not the most brilliant.
"Then Mr. Bingham is q rising man. | sup
poses" Beatrice said
Rising? should think So" he answered
They will get him into the government on
the first opportunity after this; he's too good
to neglect. Very few men have come to
the fore like Mr. Bingham. We call him
the comet, and if only ne does not make a
mess of his chances by doing something fool
isl, there is no reason why he should not be
attorney general in few years."
why should lie Go anything foolisha" she
asked