"Never in my life," answered Major White. "Is he worth seeing?"

But Cornish hurried away again. Lord Ferriby was still speaking, but he
seemed to have lost the ear of his audience, and had lapsed into
generalities. A few who were near the platform listened attentively
enough. Some who hoped that they were to be asked to speak applauded
hurriedly and finally whenever the speaker paused to take breath.

The world is full of people who will not give their money, but offer
readily enough what they call their "time" to a good cause. Lord
Ferriby was lavish with his "time," and liked to pass it in hearing the
sound of his own voice. Every social circle has its talkers, who hang
upon each other's periods in expectance of the moment when they can
successfully push in their own word. Lord Ferriby, looking round upon
faces well known to him, saw half a dozen men who spoke upon all
occasions with a sublime indifference to the fact that they knew
nothing of the subject in hand. With the least encouragement any one of
them would have stepped on to the platform bubbling over with
eloquence. Lord Ferriby was quite clever enough to perceive the danger.
He must go on talking until Roden was found. Had not the pushing parson
already intimated in a whisper that he had a few earnest thoughts in
his mind which he would be glad to get off?

Lord Ferriby knew those earnest thoughts, and their inevitable tendency
to send the audience to the refreshment-room, where, as Lady Ferriby's
husband, he suspected poverty in the land.

"Is not Mr. Cornish going to speak?" a young lady eagerly inquired of
Joan. She was a young lady who wore spectacles and scorned a fringe--a