what you say of Mrs. Baldwin's father must give her cause for honest pride. You have described a phase of American life of which nobody need be ashamed."
"Except them as has been through it," promptly responded Senator Mulligan. "There's some things human nature"—he called it "natur"—"will always be ashamed of as long as it is human nature. One of 'em is that more people blush for a rise in their family than for a fall. And it ain't so foolish as it seems; because, if you were born on top of the pile, and all your people were, bedad, you don't do any of these outlandish things such as me young friend," indicating Castlestuart-Stuart, "has been tellin' us about. By the way," asked Senator Mulligan, explosively, of the terrible Castlestuart-Stuart, "who was it give the dinner anyhow?"
And what should that scion of aristocracy, the Honourable Edward George Francis Castlestuart-Stuart, do but answer:
"Miss Baldwin's was the last I went to—but there were plenty of others!"
Ambassadors are not supposed to laugh—but at
