lace. There was very little talking in the room, and the
men's faces looked somewhat solemn: it was evidently a serious occasion.

"Is this--this--what usually goes on?" queried the puzzled Lady Alice.

"This? Oh no!" said Maurice, to whom she had addressed herself, with a
sudden happy laugh, and a perfectly beaming face. "_This_ is--a
demonstration. Here, Caspar, old man, you've got to stand here. _Now_,
Gregson."

Lady Alice accepted the chair offered to her, and Miss Brooke another.
Caspar began to look utterly perplexed, but a little relieved also, for
his eye, in straying over the crowd, had recognized two or three faces
as those of intimate friends who seemed to be mingling with the men, and
he felt sure that they had no inimical purpose towards him. All that he
could do was to look down and grasp his beard, as usual, while Jim
Gregson, the man who had once spoken to Lesley so warmly of her father,
being pushed forward by the crowd as their spokesman, addressed himself
to Caspar.

"Mr. Brooke--Sir: We have made bold to change the order of the
proceedings for this 'ere afternoon. Instead of beginning with the
music, we just want to say a few words; and that's why we've come in all
at once, so as to show that we are all of one mind. We think, sir, that
this is a very suitable opportunity for presenting you with a mark of
our--our gratitude and esteem. We have always found you a true friend to
us, and an upright man that would never allow the weak to be trampled
on, nor the poor to be oppressed, and we wish to show that whatever the
newspapers may say, sir, we have got heads on our shoulders and know a
good man when we see him." This sentence was uttered with great
emphasis, to an accompaniment of "Hear, hear," from the audience, and
considerable stamping of feet, umbrellas and sticks. "What we wish to
say, sir," and Mr. Gregson became more and more embarrassed as he came
to this point, "is that we respect you as a man and as a gentleman, and
that we take this opportunity of asking you to accept this small tribute
of our feelings towards you, and we wish to say that there's not a
member of the club as has not contributed his mite towards it, as well
as many poor neighbors in the Buildings. It's a small thing to give,
but that you will excuse on account of the shortness of the notice, so
to speak: the suggestion having been made amongst ourselves and by
ourselves only three days ago. We beg you'll accept it as a to