,
that compensated for much of this. There, all was wildest fun and
jollity; not the commotion of a people in the throes of a revolution,
not the highly wrought passion of an excited populace mad with triumph;
it was the orgie of a people who deemed the downfall of a hated
government a sort of carnival occasion, and felt that mummery and
tomfoolery were the most appropriate expressions of delight.

Through streets crowded with this dancing, singing, laughing, embracing,
and mimicking mass, the Lyles made their way to the jetty reserved for
the use of the ships of war, and soon took their places, and were rowed
off to the frigate, Skeffy waving his adieux till darkness rendered his
gallantry unnoticed.

All his late devotion to the cares of love and friendship had made such
inroads on his time that he scarcely knew what was occurring, and had
lamentably failed to report to "the Office" the various steps by which
revolution had advanced, and was already all but installed as master of
the kingdom. Determined to write off a most telling despatch, he entered
the hotel, and, seeing Alice engaged letter-writing at one table, he
quietly installed himself at another, merely saying, "The boat will
be back by midnight, and I have just time to send off an important
despatch."

Alice looked up from her writing, and a very faint smile curled her lip.
She did not speak, however, and after a moment continued her letter.

For upwards of half an hour the scraping sounds of the pens were the
only noises in the room, except at times a low murmur as Skeff read over
to himself some passage of unusual force and brilliancy.

"You must surely be doing something very effective, Skeff," said Alice,
from the other end of the room, "for you rubbed your hands with delight,
and looked radiant with triumph."

"I think I have given it to them!" cried he. "There 's not another man
in the line would send home such a despatch. Canning wouldn't have done
it in the old days, when he used to bully them. Shall I read it for
you?"

"My dear Skeff, I 'm not Bella. I never had a head for questions of
politics. I am hopelessly stupid in all such matters."

"Ah, yes; Bella told me that Bella herself, indeed, only learned to feel
an interest in them through me; but, as I told her, the woman who would
one day be an ambassadress cannot afford to be ignorant of the great
European game in which her husband is a player."

"Quite true; but I have no such ambit