Perhaps one of them is an African traveller.

A knowledge of this prevents your playing into his hands, by remarking that the papers are full of the relief of Emin Pasha.

These private inquiries will also save you from talking about Mr.Chamberlain to a neighbor who turns out to be the son of a Birmingham elector.

Allow that man his chance, and he will not only give you the Birmingham gossip, but what individual electors said about Mr.Chamberlain to the banker or the tailor, and what the grocer did the moment the poll was declared, with particulars about the antiquity of Birmingham and the fishing to be had in the neighborhood.

What you ought to do is to talk about Emin Pasha to this man, and to the traveller about Mr.Chamberlain, taking care, of course, to speak in a low voice.