politics are in your girl's pocket," muttered Mrs. Sowler. "How
long will her money last?"

Jervy turned a deaf ear to the interruption. "And what has brought
you here?" he went on, in his most ingratiating way. "Did you see the
advertisement in the papers?"

Mrs. Sowler answered loud enough to be heard above the hum of talking in
the sixpenny places. "I was having a drop of gin, and I saw the paper at
the public-house. I'm one of the discontented poor. I hate rich people;
and I'm ready to pay my sixpence to hear them abused."

"Hear, hear!" said a man near, who looked like a shoemaker.

"I hope he'll give it to the aristocracy," added one of the shoemaker's
neighbours, apparently a groom out of place.

"I'm sick of the aristocracy," cried a woman with a fiery face and a
crushed bonnet. "It's them as swallows up the money. What business have
they with their palaces and their parks, when my husband's out of work,
and my children hungry at home?"

The acquiescent shoemaker listened with admiration. "Very well put," he
said; "very well put."

These expressions of popular feeling reached the respectable ears of Mr.
Farnaby. "Do you hear those wretches?" he said to his wife.

Mrs. Farnaby seized the welcome opportunity of irritating him. "Poor
things!" she answered. "In their place, we should talk as they do."

"You had better go into the reserved seats," rejoined her husband,
turning from her with a look of disgust. "There's plenty of room. Why do
you stop here?"

"I couldn't think of leaving you, my dear! How did you like my American
friend?"

"I am astonished at your taking the liberty of introducing him to me.
You knew perfectly well that I was here incognito. What do I care about
a wandering American?"

Mrs. Farnaby persisted as maliciously as ever. "Ah, but you see, I like
him. The wandering American is my ally."

"Your ally! What do you mean?"

"Good heavens, how dull you are! don't you know that I object to my
niece's marriage engagement? I was quite delighted when I heard of this
lecture, because it's an obstacle in the way. It disgusts Regina, and
it disgusts You--and my dear American is the man who first brought
it about. Hush! here's Amelius. How well he looks! So graceful and so
gentlemanlike," cried Mrs. Farnaby, signalling with her handkerchief to
show Amelius their position in the hall. "I declare I'm ready to become
a Socialist before he opens his lips!"

The personal appearance of Amelius