Natural!'

"The remaining six members of the Eight Club laughed unanimously. It
stung me. It was a scornful laugh. My anger was roused in behalf of an
absent, friendless stranger. I rose (for I had been sitting down).

"'Gentlemen,' I said with dignity, 'I will not remain one of this Club
allowing opprobrium to be cast on an unoffending person in his absence.
I will not so violate what I call the sacred rites of hospitality.
Gentlemen, until you know how to behave yourselves better, I leave you.
Gentlemen, until then I withdraw, from this place of meeting, whatever
personal qualifications I may have brought into it. Gentlemen, until
then you cease to be the Eight Club, and must make the best you can of
becoming the Seven.'

"I put on my hat and retired. As I went down stairs I distinctly heard
them give a suppressed cheer. Such is the power of demeanour and
knowledge of mankind. I had forced it out of them.

"II.

"Whom should I meet in the street, within a few yards of the door of the
inn where the Club was held, but the self-same young man whose cause I
had felt it my duty so warmly--and I will add so disinterestedly--to
take up.

"Is it Mr. Sapsea,' he said doubtfully, 'or is it----'

"'It is Mr. Sapsea,' I replied.

"'Pardon me, Mr. Sapsea; you appear warm, sir,'

"'I have been warm,' I said, 'and on your account.' Having stated the
circumstances at some length (my generosity almost overpowered him), I
asked him his name.

"'Mr. Sapsea,' he answered, looking down, 'your penetration is so acute,
your glance into the souls of your fellow men is so penetrating, that if
I was hardy enough to deny that my name is Poker, what would it avail
me?'

"I don't know that I had quite exactly made out to a fraction that his
name _was_ Poker, but I daresay I had been pretty near doing it.

"'Well, well,' said I, trying to put him at his ease by nodding my head
in a soothing way. 'Your name is Poker, and there is no harm in being
named Poker.'

"'Oh Mr. Sapsea!' cried the young man, in a very well-behaved manner.
'Bless you for those words!' He then, as if ashamed of having given way
to his feelings, looked down again.

"'Come, Poker,' said I, 'let me hear more about you. Tell me. Where are
you going to, Poker? and where do you come from?'

"'Ah Mr. Sapsea!' exclaimed the young man. 'Disguise from you is
impossible. You know already that I come from somewhere, and am going
somewhere else. If I was to deny it,