The two, however, will pass out of our
sight, and we can only hope that he may not be disappointed.
CHAPTER XXIII
The Senator's Lecture.--No. I
Wednesday, April 14th, was the day at last fixed for the Senator's
lecture. His little proposal to set England right on all those
matters in which she had hitherto gone astray had created a
considerable amount of attention. The Goarly affair with the
subsequent trial of Scrobby had been much talked about, and the
Senator's doings in reference to it had been made matter of comment
in the newspapers. Some had praised him for courage, benevolence,
and a steadfast purpose. Others had ridiculed his inability to
understand manners different from those of his own country. He had
seen a good deal of society both in London and in the country, and
had never hesitated to express his opinions with an audacity which
some had called insolence. When he had trodden with his whole
weight hard down on individual corns, of course he had given
offence,--as on the memorable occasion of the dinner at the
parson's house in Dillsborough. But, on the whole, he had produced
for himself a general respect among educated men which was not
diminished by the fact that he seemed to count quite as little on
that as on the ill-will and abuse of others. For some days previous
to the delivery of the lecture the hoardings in London were crowded
with sesquipedalian notices of the entertainment, so that Senator
Gotobed's great oration on "The irrationality of Englishmen" was
looked to with considerable interest.
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