Till the sunrise lights them homeward as they tramp through Storey's Gate,
Racked with headache, pale and haggard, worn by nights of endless talk,
While the early sparrows twitter all along the Birdcage Walk."
Some ardent souls there are who, if report speaks true, are not content with even this amount of exertion and excitement, but finish the night, or begin the day, with a rubber at the club or even a turn at baccarat. However, we are describing, not choice spirits or chartered viveurs, but the blameless Minister, whose whole life during the Parliamentary session is the undeviating and conscientious discharge of official duty; and he, when he lays his head upon his respectable pillow any time after 1 a.m., may surely go to sleep in the comfortable consciousness that he has done a fair day's work for a not exorbitant remuneration.
NOTES:
1897.