had read a paper on Civil-Service Reform, and a very able paper it was too. But the discussion which was in order was inclined to flag, owing to our all being of pretty much the same opinion. Ellis tried to recall some heresy of Daniel Webster's on the subject, which he thought might stir us up a little, but there wasn't any real "go" to the talk, and we drifted off onto side issues. Ballotreform, which is Manning's hobby, led to English methods of election, old and new, and then somebody struck Felix Holt, which naturally brought the talk round to George Eliot. One of the fellows remarked that it was odd that so many women had chosen a man's name for a nom-de-plume, but Percy Kent said it was natural enough, since a book got a better hearing if it was supposed to be written by a man.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Brunt. "A book's a book, and stands for itself! If it's a woman that's written a good book, all the better for the book!"
