Page:Despotism and democracy; a study in Washington society and politics (IA despotismdemocra00seawiala).pdf/213

 this, the British Ambassador abandoned all hope of keeping serious. Constance was laughing frankly, Thorndyke was in quiet convulsions, Castlestuart-Stuart and Senator Mulligan were exchanging sympathetic grins—and then Eleanor Baldwin said, with the air of an offended queen:

"Papa, give me your arm."

This Mr. James Brentwood Baldwin, with a heightened colour, did, but not before Senator Mulligan genially remarked:

"Well, the best of frinds must part, so here's good-bye and good-luck to ye, Jim Baldwin, and I'll say to you, Miss Baldwin, I hope ye'll live and die as honest as ould Danny Hogan, your grandfather, and a better man never stepped in shoe-leather;" and then, turning to Mrs. Hill-Smith, Senator Mulligan continued, "I commind to you the example of your grandfather, Cap'n Josh Slater, that I had the honour of knowin' and who always got what he wanted, and was an agreeable man enough barrin' the bad tobacco and mean whiskey. But in the polite society in which we find oursilves, in these dazzlin' halls of light an' scenes of pothry an' splendour, both Cap'n Josh Slater an' good