He was not sorry this love for a woman he could not possess had sent him into Parliament.

He was beginning to enjoy himself there.

He had found himself, had lost that craven fear of the Speaker that paralyzes most new members.

He knew when to speak and when to be silent; and when he spoke unsuspected gifts of biting sarcasm, clever characterization, convincing scorn of the uneducated minister type came to his aid.
His tongue played round his victims, unequipped as they were with his vast experience of reality, vaguely discursive, on the surface as are most lawyers, at a loss for similes and tropes as are most men of business, or dull of wits as are most of the fine flowers of the public schools, stultified with the classics and scripture history.

He knew that unless there was some radical change of government he could not be a minister; but he cared little for that.
He was rich--thanks to his wife--he was recovering his influence and his European and American reputation as a great discoverer, a deep thinker.