ject before him, and although he grew interested and was earnest, he did not allow himself to become excited in the least. Danforth encourged him to go on by little questions and interjections. So he talked longer than, perhaps, otherwise he should. At last, it came to his mind that he was really taking up too much time. The Count, with a visibly bored expression, was regarding him through a single eyeglass, and at last he caught a smile on Raymond Danforth's face, and stopped.
"Well, what can you say to that, Mr. Danforth?" said Mrs. Carter, to whom the references and general subject might have been Greek or Hebrew.
"Humph," observed Danforth. "After such a fine oration as that, there is nothing to be said. I saw your friend, Mrs. Ellsworth, at Newport this year," he added, smiling as if taking advantage of getting rid of the subject.
Hart looked down at his plate. It had not struck him before that a long speech on the political situation was hardly table-talk. He saw immediately that it had been Danforth's intention to make him ridiculous, if possible. He was angry at himself, and angry at the im-
