- mained calm and unmoved. Then from a most
unexpected quarter came a terrible complication. Mince Pie Mulligan, having been frozen out by the Secretary of State and by Mr. James Brentwood Baldwin, had been jammed by the crowd almost in Eleanor Baldwin's arms, without the least resistance on his part, and had been an open-mouthed and delighted listener to Castlestuart-Stuart's candid words. At the first break he proceeded to improve his opportunities by hurling himself into the conversation, and looking straight into Eleanor's eyes the Senator bawled to Castlestuart-Stuart:
"To give such heathenish dinners as you say, people have got not only to be new, but they have got to be blamed fools besides!"
There was a moment's awful pause, and then an involuntary burst of laughter from all except Mrs. Hill-Smith and Eleanor Baldwin. The functions of society with them meant deadly serious things, such as baking and washing days had been to their grandmothers, and they thought one about as little a subject of a joke as the other. Eleanor Baldwin drew herself up, and looked coldly at the British Ambassador, whose mouth had certainly
