rgotten the world in general. Not so the Austrian, who
was on the other side of Alice, and who could not see Victoria. Mr.
Crewe, by his manner and appearance, had impressed him as a person of
importance, and he wanted to know more. Besides, he wished to improve his
English, and Alice had been told to speak French to him. By a lucky
chance, after several blind attempts, he awakened the interest of the
personality.

"I hear you are what they call reform in America?"

This was not the question that opened the gates.

"I don't care much for the word," answered Mr. Crewe, shortly; "I prefer
the word progressive."

Discourse on the word "progressive" by the Austrian almost a monologue.
But he was far from being discouraged.

"And Mrs. Pomfret tells me they play many detestable tricks on you--yes?"

"Tricks!" exclaimed Mr. Crewe, the memory of many recent ones being fresh
in his mind; "I should say so. Do you know what a caucus is?"

"Caucus--caucus? It brings something to my head. Ah, I have seen a
picture of it, in some English book. A very funny picture--it is in fun,
yes?"

"A picture?" said Mr. Crewe. "Impossible!"

"But no," said the Austrian, earnestly, with one finger to his temples.
"It is a funny picture, I know. I cannot recall. But the word caucus I
remember. That is a droll word."

"Perhaps, Baron," said Victoria, who had been resisting an almost
uncontrollable desire to laugh, "you have been reading 'Alice in
Wonderland.'"

The Englishman, Beatrice Chillingham, and some others (among whom were
not Mr. Crewe and Mrs. Pomfret) gave way to an extremely pardonable
mirth, in which the good-natured baron joined.

"Ach!" he cried. "It is so, I have seen it in 'Alice in Wonderland.'"
Here the puzzled expression returned to his face, "But they are birds,
are they not?"

Men whose minds are on serious things are impatient of levity, and Mr.
Crewe looked at the baron:

"No," he said, "they are not birds."

This reply was the signal for more laughter.

"A thousand pardons," exclaimed the baron. "It is I who am so ignorant.
You will excuse me--yes?"

Mr. Crewe was mollified. The baron was a foreigner, he had been the
object of laughter, and Mr. Crewe's chivalrous spirit resented it.

"What we call a caucus in the towns of this State," he said, "is a
meeting of citizens of one party to determine who their candidates shall
be. A caucus is a primary. There is a very loose primary law in this
State, purpo