It was also a peculiarity of the position that he seemed an almost
unwelcome visitant, even to those who had to defend him. There was an
awful pause when he rose, silently and so spectre-like, from his seat in
the dim land of the back benches, and passed to the seat immediately
behind the Marquis of Salisbury. Lord Salisbury made a very vivid and
amusing speech in the course of the evening, in defence of Lord
Clanricarde and in an attack on Mr. Justice Mathew; but observers
thought they saw a look of palpable discomfort pass across his face at
the approach of the Marquis of Clanricarde. The Lord of Woodford handed
to Lord Salisbury a little bundle of papers; in the distance, the bundle
had an inexpressibly shabby look--the look one might expect on the
bundle which some Miss Flit of the Legislature would bring every day, as
the record of her undetermined claim. Altogether, this appearance of
Lord Clanricarde in the glimpses of the moon, rather added to the
mysterious atmosphere in which he loves to live.
[Sidenote: Sir Charles Dilke.]
In the meantime, a very interesting debate was going on in the House of
Commons. I have already remarked that Sir Charles Dilke has, in an
extremely short time, re-established that mastery over the ear and the
mind of the House of Commons which he used to exercise with such
extraordinary power in the old days before misfortune overcame him.
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