--the election of an
American President. I bought a paper and thrust it into my pocket. It
was late when I reached my flat, and, after dining there, which was an
unusual thing for me to do, I put on my slippers, took an easy-chair
before the fire, and began to read my evening journal. I was
distressed to learn that the eloquent Mr. Bryan had been defeated. I
knew little about the silver question, but the man's oratorical powers
had appealed to me, and my sympathy was aroused because he owned many
silver mines, and yet the price of the metal was so low that
apparently he could not make a living through the operation of them.
But, of course, the cry that he was a plutocrat, and a reputed
millionaire over and over again, was bound to defeat him in a
democracy where the average voter is exceedingly poor and not
comfortably well-to-do as is the case with our peasants in France. I
always took great interest in the affairs of the huge republic to the
west, having been at some pains to inform myself accurately regarding
its politics, and although, as my readers know, I seldom quote
anything complimentary that is said of me, nevertheless, an American
client of mine once admitted that he never knew the true inwardness--I
think that was the phrase he used--of American politics until he heard
me discourse upon them. But then, he added, he had been a very busy
man all his life.

I had allowed my paper to slip to the floor, for in very truth the fog
was penetrating even into my flat, and it was becoming difficult to
read, notwithstanding the electric light. My man came in, and
announced that Mr. Spenser Hale wished to see me, and, indeed, any
night, but especially when there is rain or fog outside, I am more
pleased to talk with a friend than to read a newspaper.

'_Mon Dieu_, my dear Monsieur Hale, it is a brave man you are to
venture out in such a fog as is abroad tonight.'

'Ah, Monsieur Valmont,' said Hale with pride, 'you cannot raise a fog
like this in Paris!'

'No. There you are supreme,' I admitted, rising and saluting my
visitor, then offering him a chair.

'I see you are reading the latest news,' he said, indicating my
newspaper, 'I am very glad that man Bryan is defeated. Now we shall
have better times.'

I waved my hand as I took my chair again. I will discuss many things
with Spenser Hale, but not American politics; he does not understand
them. It is a common defect of the English to suffer complete
ignorance re