that speech she had heard from the verandah of the hotel at Goondi, of which she had been able to catch only the voice, not the words. But still to wish that Hallett had been dazzling would be to wish that Hallett were not Hallett, only somebody else.
Then a rough and mumbling voice was heard, and she became aware that somebody was seconding Hallett's motion. This was a poor and scrambling performance, and had only the merit of being quickly done. Then the Speaker put the question, and then the Leader of the Opposition spoke.
Mr. Torbolton made a severe attack on the policy of the Government on all its lines. The girl could recognize by the sound and movement of the house that the attack was a heavy one, and told severely. Then there was a reply from the Ministerial side, delivered by Mr. Leeke, the Minister of Mines, into whose shoes it was said Frank Hallett was to step, and she was getting into rather a drowsy condition when suddenly the Ministerial speech came to an end, and in an instant she heard again the voice that had thrilled her at Goondi. She saw that a new speaker had arisen from the Opposition side, and bending eagerly forward she recognized the face and figure of Blake, and in another five minutes the girl had learned for the first time in her life the difference between a born debater and a man who makes a good speech. Blake's voice sometimes fell to such subtle modulations that it seemed to caress the listening ear, and at other times rang out with the vibrating strength of passion, or hissed with the scornful tone of sarcasm. The assembly which had listened with such patient approval to Hallett went wild over Blake. From the Ministerial side there came angry interruptions and contradictions. From the bench of the Opposition came bursts of enthusiastic cheers and shouts of delighted laughter. She hardly knew what it was all about, but she knew well enough that it was a vivid and pitiless attack upon the policy of the Government, and that the Ministers seemed to quail under its effect.
