owever, had kept up the _role_ of a madman thoroughly, and
had spoken of the ceremonies as if he was quite prepared to carry them
out. Some men were shouting with laughter, but Jack was almost pale
with anxiety, and whispered to me that he was afraid Thornton would get
flurried and finish his speech too soon. As soon as the laughter had
stopped he went on speaking, and although he looked terribly pale and
bothered, he was never at a loss for words. "I am, I have been told,
the eighty-ninth man to fill this important office, and when I think of
my predecessors, some of whom have doubtless passed away, I am filled
with a sense of my unfitness for the post which I fill. The whole fate
of this Society depends upon its President; without him to guide the
members in their pursuit of pleasure they would be left to drift into
undignified amusements, and might even end by taking such absurd things
as degrees. At all cost we must avoid banality." As if in the
excitement of the moment, he swept his hands over his head and knocked
off his cap. "However, my fellow Hedonists, I think I may say that
your last President has entered earnestly into the spirit of this
Society. Its aim, you remember, is pleasure--not any vulgar or
ordinary pleasure, but refined and exclusive amusement--that is written
in the rules of the Society as they were given to me, and I need not
remind those who are present to-night that it is their duty to obey
them." He rested his right hand on his shirt, and continued quickly,
"I, at any rate, have obeyed them to the letter. I have, if I may say
so, got more amusement out of this evening than I have ever had in my
life, and as your eighty-ninth President I declare this magnificent
Society at an end." Dennison, Lambert, and one or two others jumped
up, but Thornton told them loudly not to interrupt him, and several of
us shouted for him to go on with his speech. "I have had an
exceedingly good dinner, and my last word must be one of sympathy with
Mr. Dennison, who, thinking that I was a bigger fool than he was, has
invented a society of which, I am sure you will all acknowledge, he is
the only man worthy to be President. I hope that you will see that he
performs the ceremonies which he has arranged for me." As he finished
he took off all his badges and tossed them across the table to Dennison.

There was a good deal of noise during the concluding sentences of his
speech, but the so-called Hedonists we