"And, by George, they talk of giving an entire play with those moving-picture machines—acting the whole thing out, you know."
"Oh, yes, we live in the biggest, brainiest age the world has ever known—"
"And America is going to be the greatest nation in it, before very long, commercially and in every way. . . ."
So the talk flowed on, with Felix Kennaston contributing very little thereto. Indeed, Felix Kennaston, the dreamer, was rather ill-at-ease among these men of action, and listened to their observations with perturbed attention. He sat among the great ones of earth—not all of them the very greatest, of course, but each a person of quite respectable importance. It was the sort of gathering that in boyhood—and in later life also, for that matter—he had foreplanned to thrill and dazzle, as he perfectly recollected. But now, with the opportunity, he somehow could not think of anything quite suitable to say—of anything which would at once do him justice and be admiringly received.
Therefore he attempted to even matters by as-
