“H’st! h’st! Down, down! Silence,” in the crowd.
“Gentlemen, I am very sorry to have to inform you that our distinguished fellow-citizen, Mr. Newt, to compliment whom you have assembled this evening, is so severely unwell (oh! gum! from the sharp-voiced skeptic below) that he is entirely unable to address you. But so profoundly touched is he by your kindness in coming to compliment him by this call, that he could not refuse to appear, though but for a moment, to look the thanks he can not speak. At the earliest possible moment he promises himself the pleasure of addressing you. Let me, in conclusion, propose three cheers for our representative in the next Congress, the Honorable Abel Newt. And now—” he whispered to his friends as the shouts began, “now lug him in again.”
The crowd cheered, the Honorable Mr. Newt was lugged in, the windows were closed, and General Belch and his friends withdrew.
“I tell you what it is,” said he, as they passed up the street at a convenient distance behind the crowd, “Abel Newt is a man of very great talent, but he must take care. By Jove! he must. He must understand times and seasons. One thing can not be too often repeated,” said he, earnestly, “if a man expects to succeed in political life he must understand when not to be drunk.”
The merry company laughed, and went home with Mr. William Condor to crack a bottle of Champagne.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet had stood at the street corner during the few minutes occupied by these events. When they heard the shouts for Newt they had looked inquiringly at each other. But when the scene was closed, and the cheers for the Honorable Abel Newt, our representative in Congress, had died away, they stood for a few moments quite stupefied.
“What does it mean, Gerald?” asked his wife. “Is Abel Newt in Congress?”
“I didn’t know it. I suppose he is only a candidate.”
He moved rapidly away, and his wife, who was not used to speed in his walking, smiled quietly, and, could he have seen her eye, a little mischievously. She said presently,
“Yes, our institutions are very simple and beautiful.”