And all the time the Old Man--with his hand to his ear, and sitting on the very end of the Treasury Bench, so as to be nearer the speaker--listened attentively, sympathetically, occasionally uttering that fine leonine cheer of his.

It was on this amendment that the Ministerial majority fell, owing to various accidents, to 30, and the Tories cheered themselves into a happy condition of mind for a few minutes.
[Sidenote: The guillotine--but not yet.] Towards the end of the sitting there was a certain feverishness of expectation.

Dr.McGregor, a Scotch Highland member, had announced that at half-past six he would move the closure of the third clause--on which we had now been working for a fortnight.

But Mr.Mellor refused to put such a drastic proposal on the suggestion of a private member.

There was, however, a very plain intimation that if a Minister were to make such a proposal it might be considered differently; all of which meant that we were approaching--slowly, patiently, forbearingly--but still approaching the moment when drastic steps would be taken to accelerate progress..