_Bishop._ Then let me look at last week's issue again. _Head Master of Public School_ (_dubiously_). Dare I be seen with _Madame Chrysanthème?_ (_Noticing that all the quiet corners are occupied with students of French literature._) No--another time! _Leading Novelist._ Here's LESLIE STEPHEN been betraying us! He says, what is only too true, that we've abandoned the standard authors, including myself, for _Punch!_ _Cabinet Minister_ (_as a deus ex machinâ_). Well, _Mr. Punch_ IS a classic. To read him is a liberal education! [_They do so, with a general sigh of relief._ * * * * * ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P. _House of Commons, Monday Night, March 11._--A great cloud fallen over House to-day. Soon the stately presence that fills the Chair will step forth, never to return. The sonorous voice that can still the storm in its angriest mood will no more resound through the hushed Chamber. The best Speaker the House of Commons in its long history has known, will be merged in the mediocrity of the House of Lords. A hard succession of blows to fall on an assembly. First Mr. G., then GRANDOLPH, and now ARTHUR PEEL, three men of wholly varied type, each unique, in his way reaching the highest level. Suppose we shall get along somehow, though for all concerned in business of House, in maintaining its usefulness and supporting its dignity, the future without PEEL in the Chair not to be regarded without foreboding. He has every quality and gift that go to make the ideal Speaker. A noble presence, a fine voice, a courtly manner, a resolute will, a full knowledge of the forms of the House, a keen though decently suppressed sense of humour--a scholar and a gentleman. These things are seen and recognised from outside. Only those who live and work in the House of Commons know how marvellous is the combination, how infinite in its magnitude the loss impending. _Tuesday._--Talk to-night all about successor to the SPEAKER. A dozen names mentioned; general conclusion that whoever may be selected, he's not to be envied. The Member for SARK, turning up to-night for first time this Session, brings strange news. Has been on the Riviera, daily expecting influenza. Saw Mr. G. yesterday; the talk at Cap Martin, as here, all about the soon-to-be emptied Chair, and who is to fill it. SARK tells me he is quite certain Mr. G. is thinking of coming forward as candidate; is (so SARK says, and he is a most reliable person) evidently eating out his heart in voluntary retirement. Now he's got his Psalter out, doesn't know what to do next. "I asked him," SARK says, "whether there was any precedent for an ex-Prime Minister, however young in years and untamed in energy, becoming Speaker."