impossible but what I shall take Cronstadt!" "But if you don't take it!"
"It is impossible but what I shall take it; for if I don't take it,
there's an end of the British fleet; and as it is impossible that there
should be an end of the British fleet, it is impossible that I should not
take Cronstadt!"--Q.E.D.




CHAPTER XII.

In which everything depends on Sir Isaac's success in discovering
the law of attraction.

On the appointed evening, at eight o'clock, the great room of the
Gatesboro' Athenaeum was unusually well filled. Not only had the Mayor
exerted himself to the utmost for that object, but the hand-bill itself
promised a rare relief from the prosiness of abstract enlightenment and
elevated knowledge. Moreover, the stranger himself had begun to excite
speculation and curiosity. He was an amateur, not a cut-and-dry
professor. The Mayor and Mr. Williams had both spread the report that
there was more in him than appeared on the surface; prodigiously learned,
but extremely agreeable, fine manners, too!--Who could he be? Was
Chapman his real name? etc.

The Comedian had obtained permission to arrange the room beforehand.
He had the raised portion of it for his stage, and he had been fortunate
enough to find a green curtain to be drawn across it. From behind this
screen he now emerged and bowed. The bow redoubled the first
conventional applause. He then began a very short address,--extremely