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" out of the Automaton shares which old Smudger let him have, carrying a little premium before allotment."
Little Lomas, however, represented the smallest of the Nobodies at Lady Forsyth's ; and the next moment Mr. Selwyn was struck, not with the apparition of a certain famous statesman, whom his enemies call a mere politician, but with the real genuine Simon Pure himself, and evident- ly in one of those amiable moods, about which newspaper interviewers wax eloquent. The great man was talking to Miss Spofforth, the new tragedienne fresh from the United States, at whose first appearance he had most kindly as- sisted. He was telling her to the delight of several listen- ers how much he admired America, how deeply he regretted he had not been able to visit that country, what pleasure it gave him to know that he had many good friends there, and so on.
Sam felt that it was not quite comme il faut to stand by and listen, but he could not help it; and he was very much interested when the hostess ventured to introduce his Ex- cellency Signer Ferrari to the illustrious statesman. Why Ferrari was his Excellency did not transpire, but Lady Forsyth was lavish with courteous titles and compli- mentary distinctions. The name of Ferrari set the states- man's mind traveling from America to Italy ; but Ferrari promptly turned the conversation to the Russian news of the day, with its startling details of a military conspiracy just unearthed by the police, and developing extraordinary ramifications. Ferrari, considering that he referred to himself as an old-fashioned loyalist, did not seem to speak of the affair with very great regret ; he even said that it might be a good thing to bring the Young Russian agita- tion to a head, so that once for all Europe should be re- lieved of the everlasting threat of a great Russian upheaval. The famous statesman replied with both frankness and caution, expressing sympathy with the Czar, but at the
