laughing and
blushing), known at the Clubs, and of the Society which they described.
He pointed out delicately to advertisers that there would be no such
medium as the Pall Mall Gazette for giving publicity to their sales;
and he eloquently called upon the nobility of England, the baronetage of
England, the revered clergy of England, the bar of England, the matrons,
the daughters, the homes and hearths of England, to rally round the good
old cause; and Bungay at the conclusion of the reading woke up from a
second snooze in which he had indulged himself, and again said it was
all right.

The reading of the prospectus concluded, the gentlemen present entered
into some details regarding the political and literary management of the
paper, and Mr. Bungay sate by listening and nodding his head, as if he
understood what was the subject of their conversation, and approved
of their opinions. Bungay's opinions, in truth, were pretty simple. He
thought the Captain could write the best smashing article in England.
He wanted the opposition house of Bacon smashed, and it was his opinion
that the Captain could do that business. If the Captain had written a
letter of Junius on a sheet of paper, or copied a part of the Church
Catechism, Mr. Bungay would have been perfectly contented, and have
considered that the article was a smashing article. And he pocketed the
papers with the greatest satisfaction: and he not only paid for the MS.,
as we have seen, but he called little Mary to him, and gave her a penny
as he went away.

The reading of the manuscript over, the party engaged in general
conversation, Shandon leading with a jaunty fashionable air in
compliment to the two guests who sate with him and, and who, by their
appearance and manner, he presumed to be persons of the beau monde. He
knew very little indeed of the great world, but he had seen it, and made
the most of what he had seen. He spoke of the characters of the day,
and great personages of the fashion, with easy familiarity and jocular
allusions, as if it had been his habit to live amongst them. He told
anecdotes of their private life, and of conversations he had had, and
entertainments at which he had been present, and at which such and
such a thing occurred. Pen was amused to hear the shabby prisoner in a
tattered dressing-gown talking glibly about the great of the land. Mrs.
Shandon was always delighted when her husband told these tales, and
believed in them fondly every