"Wish he'd keep an eye on the clock," murmured a captious member. "Not once," he added conclusively, "but three times out of four." There was a vigorous knock at the front door, and the hurried footsteps of some one ascending the stairs with the consciousness that he was late. "Talk of Tubes and you'll have a puncture," confided a comrade of humorous bent to his neighbour, and on the words the Home Secretary, certainly with very little breath left in him, entered the room and made his apologies. The special business for which the Council had been called together was to consider a series of reports from the constituencies, and to decide how to be influenced by their tenor. The Government had no desire to wait for a general election in order to find out the views of the electors of the country; given a close summary of those sentiments, it might be possible to fall in with their wishes, and thereby to be spared the anxiety of an election until their septennial existence had run its course; or, if forced by the action of their own malcontents to take that unwelcome step, at least to cut the ground from beneath their opponents' feet in advance. If there was not complete unanimity among those present, there was no distinct line of variance. Men of the extremest views had naturally not been included, and although the prevailing opinion was that the conditions of labour had been put upon a fair and equitable basis during their tenure of office--or as far in that direction as it was possible to go without utterly stampeding capitalists and ratepayers from the country--there were many who were prepared to go yet a little further if it seemed desirable.