Mr. Stead at the American Embassy. 



167 



" But I have written to you, Mr. Morgan," I .said. 

 " I want to see you very much. I don't want to get 

 lioiil of you, Mr. Morgan, I want \ou to get hold 

 of me." 



"Oh," he said, "anything personal that you like ! " 



" I want to have a very good square talk with you 

 whenever you have leisure enough." 



" Nothing for publication." 



" Oh," 1 said. " do you really mean that ? " 



" Yes," he said, " any morning between ten and 

 eleven I shall be delighted to see you, except from 

 Friday till .Monday," so I said to Porter that he did 

 me a very good turn in introducing me to Morgan. 

 I have often wanted to meet him. 



Then we went downstairs and found that the 

 refreshments were served on the ground floor in the 

 big room looking out to the parade. There was 

 champagne and a good set out, but no tea, so I had 

 some champagne with Porter, and some sandwiches. 

 Then .Morgan oime up again, and I said to him ; 

 " By-the-bye, .Mr. Morgan, do you really mean it, 

 that you would not regard me as a nuisance if I 

 came ? " 



" Not at all." he said; " I know you very well. I 

 know you a good deal better than you know me. I 

 have known you for years. I know all about you," 

 he said, " and I shall be delighted to .see you." 



" Very well." I said, " then I shall come along, 

 because you have done a great many up-to-date things, 

 but it is nothing to what you are going to do in the 

 future, and I would like awfully to come along and 

 square up vuur mind, and to know vour mind about 

 things." 



" Well," he said, " come along and see me." 



A DANCING GOWN FOR 3S. 



Then I met .Mr. Bainbridge. who used to be a Member 

 V of Parliament, who has a model village down in the 

 ^^idlands in Dcrby.shire, a colliery village. I asked 

 him what he was doing in his leisure. He said 

 putting up a holiday hotel for factory girls at 

 Seaforth ; that he had bought a wooden building 

 in Paris, and jjrought it over to Seaforth. I told 

 him I was publishing Miss Ncal's article. He .said. 

 Really, he had been working with .Mi.ss Neal, and 

 knew her very well, and liked her very much. He 

 had been to her club, and had given each of the 

 members of her dub 2S. 6d. as a Christmas present, 

 ,ind his wife had given them all 2s. 6d. to give to some- 

 one else ; that he had been da:i(ing with a factory 

 girl, and she said to him, "By-the-bye, Mr. Bainbridge, 

 are you the gentleni.m who gave us 5s. at Christmas ? 

 I want to thank \iju for it very much." 

 He .said, " What did you do with it ? " 

 " Well," she saici, " there's a girl in our factory 

 who is very poor, and who had neither fire nor warm 

 clothes, and I gave it to her." 



He said, " What did you do with your own ? " 

 " Oh," she said, " my grandmother is very poor, 

 and I gave it to her." 



The gown in which she was dancing she had made 

 herself, and it cost her 3s. 



.MR. GROSSMITH AND CHICAGO. 



" By-the-bye," said he, " do you know Mr. 

 Grossmith ? " 



I said, "No, I would be glad to have the pleasure of 

 being introduced to him." Mr. Grossmith, said he. 

 had met my books in every part of the world. He 

 had bought my book on Chicago, and had come upon 

 one of my circulating libraries at Newlyn. The one 

 thing that he said he did not like was that in the 

 Chicago book, as he said, " You know that Chicago 

 book was wonderful — that page in wliich you gave a 

 map in which all the houses of ill-fame were printed 

 in red and the gambling-houses in black." He said, 

 " .My wife was not with me just then, and I said to 

 my secretary, ' This is the most useful book I have 

 ever come across. Now we will know where to go,' 

 I .said." 



" If you had gone," I said, " you would not have 

 stayed long." 



" How long were you in Chicago ? " he said. 



" Four months," I said. 



" So vou got to know things prettv well ? " 



" Yes," I said. 



He said he had taken the chair for ]\[ark Twain 

 on one occasion in New York. He said that he had 

 never before taken a chair, and Mark Twain began 

 his speech by saying that Mr. Grossmith said he had 

 never taken a chair before, but he did not give him 

 any knowledge of how many other things he had 

 taken. 



Mr. Bainbridge then told an anecdote about the 

 Mark Twain dinner, which did not seem to me par- 

 ticularly good. Grossmith was verv pleasant. 



PEARSON THE CONTRACTOR. 



" Dick," said I^ainhridge to a man, but Dick had 

 got out of hearing. 



" I want to introduce vou to that man," he said. 



" Who is he ? " I said! 



" Oh," he said, " he is Pearson, the great contractor 

 who is building the* railway across Mexico. He is a 

 very interesting man to talk to, but you would think 

 he was the stupidest man in the world. He has the 

 most wonderful head for figures that ever you .saw in 

 your life." 



" I have shifted my hou.se," said Bainbridge. " I 

 am now li\ing in 15erkeley .Square. I wish you 

 would <ome some da\- anti let me have a talk about 

 all these social matters, for you are the one man 

 who is most in touch with these things all over the 

 world." 



I said f should be very glad, and then he went awav. 



Then I had another gla,ss of champagne, and some 

 strawberries and cream, and then 1 shook hands and 

 went away. 



I went with Spender to his cab, and told him about 

 De Wet's doctor, and came down to the ollice. 



