r, is, I may say"--and here Mr.
Blagg coughed a little cough--"pleasant to the pocket."

"But I want your help still further, dear Mr. Blagg. We must make this
poor Indian's cause our own. We must agitate the matter. I hope that
when this paper has been read to-night" (and Miss Slopham looked down
at the roll in her lap), "you will be willing to write something about
it to your papers. I want the influence of your pen to rouse the
country."

"I'll do what my pen enables me to do, Miss Slopham; and I will say
that I think it is not without its effect," replied Mr. Blagg, with
the conscious pride of a man who knew that public opinion would never
get itself properly moulded without his help.

"It will be painful for us, of course, to be involved in anything like
notoriety, but" (and now a shade of lofty resignation passed over the
lady's face), "we must bear it for the sake of the cause." Miss
Slopham already called it "the cause."

But the company had begun to assemble. Mr. Michst was there, having
deprived the Ethical Circle of the benefit of his ministrations for an
entire week in order to be present. Mr. and Mrs. Ayr were there, with
Miss Josephine and her lover, who was heard to remark that this would
be "great larks to tell the boys." The Misses Pound were also there,
conveying in their looks their profound pity for a young man so sadly
insnared. Mrs. Gottom was there, with her pretty niece, who looked, as
really pretty girls always do, prettier than ever. Professor Phyle was
there, and Mrs. Blenkin. But Lieutenant Wray had not been able to
accept Miss Slopham's invitation. There were besides a considerable
number of persons of limited celebrity, most of them fierce hobby
riders, who, instead of leaving those unruly animals at home in their
luxurious stalls, or outside of their friends' houses, as the instinct
of politeness might have suggested, rode them boldly into the parlors
of the best society, and ran them at full gallop into the midst of any
conversation, so that often no sound could be heard but the noise of
their hoofs. Of the number and kind of these hobbies there is no need
here to speak, but when there were so many gathered into a single
place, the neighing and snorting, the champing of conversational bits,
and the pounding of huge and heavy feet were curious to behold and to
hear.

And Ogla-Moga? Now the native costumes were coming into play, and Miss
Slopham's long martyrdom was to have its reward