200 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.
same time regretting that the Emperor did not see his way to give his people a Constitution. Oddly enough the next day all this and much more appeared as the result of an informal chat at a dinner party with an illustrious statesman, and was quoted in a London evening paper. Little Lomas had thus easily capitalized his excursion from Brixton to Gower-street ; and what did he care about the protest of a high-minded London journal against the pub- lication of private conversation? Or for that matter what did anybody else care ?
Lady Forsyth might well be proud of her afternoons, of the one under notice in particular. The Hon. Member for Blodgetts-in-thc-Marsh brought his wife, who is sup- posed to inspire the smartest of the personal articles in his clever journal of Chat and Opinion, He seemed to be in unusually good spirits, and attended the distinguished statesman to his carriage, chatting all the while about a certain Party resolution which was to shake the Govern- ment on the following day.
The famous statesman did not stay long with Lady Forsyth. When he was gone there was time to look around and make note of the other celebrities, which, by the way, was being done with a critical eye by Mr. Lucien Lightfoot of the Social and Political Review, which he represents with a deep sense of its importance and circu- lation. Mr. Lightfoot has the run of the highest society, not alone as a journalist, but for his own sweet sake ; he gives At Homes himself on a large scale, and is in the confidence of no end of Society people, who seek his advice as to " the right thing to do, don't you know," on certain occasions. Since the eminent Mr. Jenkins, of the Post, joined the majority, and the journal of the upper circles went down into the ranks of the Conservative Democracy, no newspaper man has made so distinguished a mark in Mayfair as Mr. Lightfoot, a past master in the
