The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-29

| popular than Lord Gaston in his new
 world. All the gfeat ladies were en. chanted with him, and invited him tc their tea parties. He was called the | handsome Englishman, and then he | was so kind and obliging, too. He was as good-natured as he was beautiful Apparently he was we'll pleased with his new life. Two years passed away
 and he never asked for leave of ab- sence though he wrote charming letters
 to his father. who read extracts from them sometimes to his colleagues, and sent the most exquisite presents to Claribel, whom he called Mama. Un- happily, one morning he appeared with out notice at Bertram House, and order | cd breakfast asi calmly as if he never had left his home. He had travelled night and day, for he had been ordered ! by the government of the country tc leave 1t at an hours notice, some cor. | respondence having been discovered be, ,, tween the noble British attache and q revolutionary leader. A secret com but 1t was the interest of all parties | thst the affair should be hushed up. There is nothing to be done for him
 now but to push him into Parliament"
 said his father. If anything can get the nonsense out of a man it is the
 House of Commons"
 The reader will have seen that this
 last expedient had not been quite suc- cessful. Lord Bertram forget his an- noyance in the pressure of public busi-
 ness, and Lady Bertram found a sub stitute for the skeptical confidence and revolutionary principles of her step
 son, with which she was beginning to
 sympathize, in the unfiinching ortho-
 doxy and ultra Conservatism of his
 Parliamentary successor. urged as they were by him with irresistible diaiectics and a torrent of words which no im- provisatore coAld excel. and to which Lady Bertram fn yelled ecstasy listened as she would to cataract In the Alps.
 On a certain day in every week it came to be understood that Mir. Joseph Toplady Falconet would probably be drinking a cup of tea at Bertram House and expounding his schemes of regen- eration for a society which he was re- solved to save. though he admitted its condition was somewhat desperate. He had already achieved success in the House of Commons. where rapid suc- cess is difficult. Very shortly after the entrance into that still fastidlous and somewhat incredulous assembly he took up the Sabbatarian question, and the notice of his motion was received WtlH COnJGl1pluOuS TtbVcCls but NHG feeling was far otherwise when they once recognized that this was a man who would mount, and looked forward with interest to the occasion when he might deliver himself on some practical subject, and not on such moonshine as that with which he had favored them. But here the old hands. as they often do, made Q mistake. There was a great. though latent. fund of religion ism in the House; much of 1t sincere, large portion no doubt inspired by the constituencies, but the members who acknowledged these sentiments were. generally speaking. not of class calculated to enthral listening Senates. They were respectable men, usually opulent, and their opinions on matters of trade were quite incapable of grap- bling with great questions that touch the convictions and consciences of na- tIons, and they hailed with satisfac- ton a commanding expounder of opln- ions which in their hands they felt would have assumed a character of feebleness which. they were persuaded was undeserved. These men, sitting on both sides of House. rallied around Falconet. He gathered other allies. With all his abilities and requirements. Joseph Toplady Falconet was essential ly a prig. and among prlgs there is freemasonry which never fails. All the prigs spoke of him as of the coming man.
 Lady Bertram always returned from her daily drive at 6 o'clock, and she was always at home. There never had been formal invitations, but the initla- ted came--a small refined circle. There were always a few ladies of great fashion, sometimes a royal Duch- ess, an Ambassador, a dandy or two-- for Lady Bertram could even command dandies--and half a dozen other men. native or foreign, but of European ce- Iebrity. When 1t was in his power
 Falconet was there, but that was un- certain. for the House of Commons is a Jealous mistress and will not grant success without due attention The greatest compliment you can pay to a woman is to give to her your time. and 1t is the same with our Senate. 4 man who is always in his place be- comes a sort of favoEite. But there were other means of communication between Claribel and her new prophet; books were mutually lent to each oth- CT. and every day there were letters exchanged; on her part. little emblaz- oned notes; on his. treatises. pamph- let's. where everything was divided un-