in the audacity of
his venture. 'One part of my purpose in seeking out Professor Flick,
and--Mr.--Mr. Andrew J. Copping--of Omaha--yes--I think I am right--of
Omaha--was to ask these gentlemen if they would do me the favour of
dining with me on the earliest day we can fix--not here, of course--oh,
no--I could not think of bringing them out here again; but at the
Folk-Lore Club, the only club, gentlemen, with which I have the honour
to be connected----'

'Sir, you do us too much honour,' the Professor gravely said, 'and any
day that suits you shall be made suitable to us.'

'Suitable to us,' Mr. Copping solemnly chimed in.

'And I was thinking,' Sarrasin said, turning to Ericson, who was now
becoming rather eager to get away, 'that if we could prevail upon his
Excellency to join us he might be interested in our quaint little club,
to say nothing of an evening with two such distinguished American
scholars, who, I am sure----'

'I shall be positively delighted,' Ericson said, 'if you can only
persuade Hamilton to agree to the night and to let me off. Hamilton is
my friend who acts as private secretary to me, Professor Flick; and, as
I am informed you sometimes say in America, he bosses the show.'

'I believe, sir, that is a phrase common among the less educated of our
great population,' Professor Flick conceded.

'Quite so,' said Ericson, beginning to think the Professor of Folk-Lore
rather a prig.

'Then that is all but arranged,' Sarrasin said, flushing with joy and
only at the moment having one regret--that the Folk-Lore Club did not
take in ladies as guests, and that, therefore, there was no use in his
thinking of asking Miss Ericson to join the company at his dinner party.

'Well, the basis of negotiation seems to have been very readily accepted
on both sides,' Ericson said, with a feeling of genuine pleasure in his
heart that he was in a position to do anything that could give Sarrasin
a pleasure, and resolving within himself that on that point at least he
would stand no nonsense from Hamilton.

So they all parted very good friends. Sarrasin and the two Americans
disappeared into Camelot, and Ericson drove home alone. As he drove he
was thinking over the Americans. What a perfect type they both were of
the regulation American of English fiction and the English stage! If
they could only go on to the London stage and speak exactly as they
spoke in ordinary life they must make a splendid success as American
c