Mr.
Chamberlain made his son the Whip of the Unionist Party. The resemblance
between father and son is something even closer than that usually
noticed between relatives. The son looks a good deal more gentlemanly
than the father. But the single eyeglass--which no man can wear without
looking more or less of a snob--is even less becoming to the youthful
Austen than to the parent; and gives him even a coarser air. There is a
suspicion that young Chamberlain also came to the House armed with a
goodly supply of hats; at all events, he and his friends managed to
secure a large number of seats for the Unionists. Chamberlain and his
friends sat together on the third bench below the gangway--a position of
'vantage in some respects--from which they could survey the House. The
first seat was occupied by Mr. Chamberlain; next him was Sir Henry
James, and then came Mr. Courtney, in a snuff-coloured coat and drab
waistcoat; for all the world like an old-fashioned squire who has not
yet learned to accommodate himself to the sombre garments of an
unpicturesque age. The dutiful Austen left himself without a seat, and
was content to kneel in the gangway, and there take sweet counsel from
his parent.
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