ame object.

I reached London next morning, and at once sent word to the Prime
Minister that I was ready to make a treaty with him. He sent Sir
Samuel Clithering to act as an intermediary. We met in the library of
Moyne House, which was neutral ground. Lady Moyne had been one of the
original syndicate which, so to speak, placed our insurrection on the
market. Her house was therefore friendly soil for me. She had
afterwards disassociated herself, more or less, from Conroy and
McNeice; while Moyne had been trying for two days to surrender
himself. The Prime Minister's ambassador could therefore go to Moyne
House without loss of dignity.

Clithering brought my nephew Godfrey with him.

"Mr. D'Aubigny," he said, "is acting for the present as one of my
private secretaries."

Clithering is a man who accumulates private secretaries rapidly. It
would not have surprised me to hear that he had a dozen.

"I brought him," Clithering went on, "to take notes of our
conversation. I thought that you would prefer him to a stranger."

I should very much have preferred the young man from Toynbee Hall who
escorted Marion to the cathedral. I should, in fact, have preferred
any other private secretary. But I had not the heart to say so. The
experience of the last few days had softened me, and Godfrey looked
immensely pleased with himself. He had on a new frock coat,
beautifully cut, and a pair of trousers of an exquisite shade of grey.
He also had a pale mauve tie with a pearl pin in it.

Clithering began rather pompously. I dare say he really thought that
he was in a position to dictate terms.

"I hope," he said, "I sincerely hope that you fully realize the
extraordinary forbearance with which the Government has treated
this--this--"

"Don't say rebellion," I said; "we're thoroughly loyal men and always
have been."

Clithering hesitated. He wanted to say rebellion, but he remembered
that he was engaged in a game of diplomacy.

"This _emeute_," he said at last.

French is, after all, a greater language than English. I could not
object to _emeute_. I should have objected to any English description
of our rising.

"We might," said Clithering, "have shot the people down. We might have
bombarded the town. I am sure that you realize that."

"We realize it," I said, "but we don't altogether appreciate it. In
fact, we feel that your way of conducting the war has been rather
insulting to us."

"You don't mean to say," said Clith