s to listen
to a lecture. The lecturers were usually, though not always, hired. If a
chemist in New York made a new discovery in say radium, all his expenses
across the continent were paid, and as well he received a princely fee
for his time. The same with a returning explorer from the polar regions,
or the latest literary or artistic success. No visitors were allowed,
while it was the Philomath's policy to permit none of its discussions
to get into the papers. Thus great statesmen--and there had been such
occasions--were able fully to speak their minds.

I spread before me a wrinkled letter, written to me by Ernest twenty
years ago, and from it I copy the following:

"Your father is a member of the Philomath, so you are able to come.
Therefore come next Tuesday night. I promise you that you will have the
time of your life. In your recent encounters, you failed to shake the
masters. If you come, I'll shake them for you. I'll make them snarl like
wolves. You merely questioned their morality. When their morality is
questioned, they grow only the more complacent and superior. But I shall
menace their money-bags. That will shake them to the roots of their
primitive natures. If you can come, you will see the cave-man, in
evening dress, snarling and snapping over a bone. I promise you a great
caterwauling and an illuminating insight into the nature of the beast.

"They've invited me in order to tear me to pieces. This is the idea of
Miss Brentwood. She clumsily hinted as much when she invited me.
She's given them that kind of fun before. They delight in getting
trustful-souled gentle reformers before them. Miss Brentwood thinks I
am as mild as a kitten and as good-natured and stolid as the family cow.
I'll not deny that I helped to give her that impression. She was very
tentative at first, until she divined my harmlessness. I am to receive
a handsome fee--two hundred and fifty dollars--as befits the man who,
though a radical, once ran for governor. Also, I am to wear evening
dress. This is compulsory. I never was so apparelled in my life. I
suppose I'll have to hire one somewhere. But I'd do more than that to
get a chance at the Philomaths."

Of all places, the Club gathered that night at the Pertonwaithe house.
Extra chairs had been brought into the great drawing-room, and in
all there must have been two hundred Philomaths that sat down to hear
Ernest. They were truly lords of society. I amused myself with running
over i