This was not the answer I expected, and I varied my question by referring to the visitors and places of amusement, particularly mentioning the theatre and the public assemblies.
The stranger smiled pleasantly, and said, "I saw only the outside of the theatre; but during my stay there I was present at several public assemblies."
"How very enchanting they must be!" I remarked, with youthful ardour.
"I am not sure that 'enchanting' is quite the right word," he said, looking thoughtful; "but they were very delightful, certainly."
"They were crowded, I suppose, sir?"
"Yes, generally," he said, and added that, at the last of these public assemblies, there were present more than a thousand people.
This seemed to me to be a great number, and to need a large assembly room to hold them. I made some remark which led him to say that no doubt there were many varieties of character present, and of different degrees in life. "But," he added, "I have reason to know that many honourable personages were to be met with there, and even the King Himself was there."
"The King, sir? I did not know that the King ever visited ——"; and I began to feel incredulous. I was not so ignorant as not to know that King George the Fourth, in whose reign we were then living, had for some time almost secluded himself from his subjects, and resided generally at Windsor.
"I see," continued the stranger, speaking more earnestly and seriously than before, "that you do not quite understand me; and I apprehend that we have each been using the same words to express a different set of ideas on which our minds have been fixed."
"I do not understand you, sir," I said, rather coldly.