nd such insinuations at my table are
distinctly out of place."

"I ask your pardon, Mrs. Pedagog," rejoined the offender, meekly.
"Nevertheless, as apart from the question in hand as to whether Mr.
Pedagog inspires idiocy or not, I should like to get the views of this
gathering on the point you make regarding the table. _Is_ this your
table? Is it not rather the table of those who sit about it to regale
their inner man with the good things under which I remember once or twice
in my life to have heard it groan? To my mind, the latter is the truth.
It is _our_ table, because we buy it, and I am forced to believe that
some of us pay for it. I am prepared to admit that if Mr. Brief, for
instance, is delinquent in his weekly payments, his interest in the table
reverts to you until he shall have liquidated, and he is not privileged
to say a word that you do not approve of; but I, for instance, who since
January 1st have been compelled to pay in advance, am at least sole
lessee, and for the time being proprietor of the portion for which I have
paid. You have sold it to me. I have entered into possession, and while
in possession, as a matter of right and not on sufferance, haven't I the
privilege of freedom of speech?"

"You certainly exercise the privilege whether you have it or not,"
snapped Mr. Pedagog.

"Well, I believe in exercise," said the Idiot. "Exercise brings strength,
and if exercising the privilege is going to strengthen it, exercise it I
shall, if I have to hire a gymnasium for the purpose. But to return to
Mrs. Pedagog's remark. It brings up another question that has more or
less interested me. Because Mrs. Smithers married Mr. Pedagog, do we lose
all of our rights in Mr. Pedagog? Before the happy event that reduced our
number from ten to nine--"

"We are still ten, are we not?" asked Mr. Whitechoker, counting the
guests.

"Not if Mr. Pedagog and the late Mrs. Smithers have become one," said the
Idiot. "But, as I was saying, before the happy event that reduced our
number from ten to nine we were permitted to address our friend Pedagog
in any terms we saw fit, and whenever he became sufficiently interested
to indulge in repartee we were privileged to return it. Have we
relinquished that privilege? I don't remember to have done so."

"It's a question worthy of your giant intellect," said Mr. Pedagog,
scornfully. "For myself, I do not at all object to anything you may
choose to say to me or of me. Your assaul