1i1.] THE SILVER FAIRIES 145

 

sion of a drawer containing an inexhaustible supply of
bank-notes might greatly facilitate his obtaining that
position to which he was now advised to aspire.

But, excepting that members of Parliament had to
live in London half the year, and make laws—-that
they talked a great deal in doing so, and that their
proceedings took up a great deal of space in the
newspapers which might otherwise be filled with more
amusing matter, Simon knew very little about them.
The worthy man was no politician, and, in fact
generally followed the lead of Joe Muggins at an
election, together with the other frequenters of the
‘Royal George’ parlour, with no very definite idea as
to the political party which he was supporting. It
was therefore an extraordinary idea to him that he
should suddenly be invited to become a prominent
actor in the arena of politics, and a proposition so
strange and unexpected almost took his breath away
at the first moment.

So he stared back at his sapient adviser without
uttering a word, and for some few seconds the two men
sat there gazing at each other with grave countenances
in a manner which would have appeared somewhat
ridiculous to a stranger. Not so, however, did it seem
to the females of the party, who had been cagerly
waiting to hear the opinion of the great cracle, and who,
now that it had been given, were puzzled and aston-
ished beyond measure. As to Dolly, Parliament being
in her mind intimately connected with that species of
ginger-bread which goes by the same name, she at first
imagined that her grandfather was advised to start a
shop in that line of business, which indeed would

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