"Yes," said PLUNKET, "times _are_ hot. I don't know what we should do without TOMMY BOWLES. The spectacle of his white ducks is to me as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. They talk about an army of men in the basement working machinery that keeps the temperature ten degrees below what it is marked on the Terrace. Also there is, it seems, a ton and a half of ice melting in ventilating chambers at the taxpayers' expense for our comfort. But I don't think ice is in it with TOMMY'S ducks. Even if they were stationary it would be something. But observe how, coming and going, TOMMY'S brain an argosy of great thoughts, the ducks seem to skim over our prosaic floor, calling up even to the unimaginative mind a vision of deep, tree-shaded, quietly-rippling Broad, over which the wild duck swiftly moves, waving white wings." Only PLUNKET, I fancy, could evolve poesy out of to-night's scene; hot above precedent, dull beyond endurance. "PLUNKET'S duck picture cool and refreshing. But," said EDWARD OF ARMAGH, drawing on his military experiences, "what we're doing just now may be much more accurately described as the goose step." Quite so. We sit all afternoon and far into the night, always talking, sometimes dividing; every appearance of motion, no advance; feet lifted with due sign of walking, but when midnight strikes and parade dismissed we are found posted exactly at the same spot as that on which we took our stand at half-past three in the afternoon. If Mr. G. means business the sooner he gets about it the better. _Business done._--None. _Friday._--Mr. G. does mean business. Commences on Monday, when Motion will be made to close Report Stage of Home-Rule Bill. Mere reference to it set House bubbling with excitement. Mr. G.'s proposed Resolution not yet drafted. "You know how it is," he said, smiling blandly at PRINCE ARTHUR; "you've had a good deal of experience in drawing Resolutions of this nature." But if Ministers not ready with their Resolution, JOSEPH prepared with Amendment. Read it out amid lively interruption. Conversation later conducted with much vigour across the Gangway, where, a fortnight ago, GUNTER received an Irish Member (not iced) full in pit of stomach. Once the Blameless BARTLEY signalled out Member for South Donegal, mentioning him by name as responsible for particular exclamations. "Don't presume to mention my name," said MACNEILL, leaning across gangway. [Illustration: Swift MacNeill refuses to be named.] "Look here, BARTLEY," said TOMMY BOWLES, "if you're going on that tack, you must come and sit at this side. When I saw MACNEILL open his mouth to speak, I confess I thought I was going to be swallowed whole. You sit here; there's more of you." _Business done._--Notice given that business is about to commence. * * * * * Transcriber's Note: Sundry damaged or missing punctuation has been repaired.