ost immediately.

Gorman came in to receive our congratulations as soon as his play was
over. I asked him to join our supper party but he had an engagement of
his own, a supper at the Savoy. I do not blame him. The lady who acted
the principle part in his play had been very charming. She deserved any
supper that Gorman could give her.

We reached the Carlton very early, long before the rush of supper
parties began. Von Richter joined us as we sat down at the table. He was
an intelligent, agreeable young man with plenty of tact. He listened
and was apparently interested while Mrs. Ascher poured out her hopes and
fears for Ireland's future. When she came, as she did in the end, to
her own plan of buying guns for the Nationalist Volunteers Von Richter
became almost enthusiastic.

"You Americans," he said. "You are always on-the side of the oppressed.
Alone among the nations of the earth you have a pat for the head of the
bottom dog."

Von Richter's English is not only correct, it is highly idiomatic.
Mrs. Ascher bridled with pleasure. It pleased her to think that she was
patting the bottom dog's head. I did not remind her that in the group
which she had just modelled the Spirit of Irish Poetry, for whose
benefit she intended to buy guns, had got its foot firmly planted on the
pig. That animal--and I still believed it to represent Belfast--was the
one which a tender-hearted American ought to have patted.

"Perhaps I may be able to assist you," said Von Richter, "I know
something of rifles. That is my trade, you know. If I can be of any
help--there is a firm in Hamburg----"

He was glancing at Ascher as he spoke. He wondered, I suppose, how far
Ascher was committed to the scheme of arming Gorman's constituents. But
Ascher did not appear to be listening to him. He had allowed me to
pour out some champagne for him and sat fingering the stem of his glass
without drinking.

No one was eating or drinking much. I proposed that we should leave the
supper room and have our coffee in the hall outside. I felt slightly
uncomfortable at the turn the conversation was taking. Mrs. Ascher was
very much in earnest about Ireland. Von Richter, I suppose, really knew
where to buy guns. I entirely agreed with Gorman that the distribution
of firearms in Ireland was a most undesirable thing.

"I always think," I said, "that one of the things to do in London is
to watch the people going in and out of the supper room here. There
is nothin