It was a fairly good club,--with a sprinkling of Liberal lordlings, a couple of dozen of members of Parliament who had been made to believe that they would neglect their party duties unless they paid their money, and the usual assortment of barristers, attorneys, city merchants and idle men.

It was good enough at any rate for Ferdinand Lopez, who was particular about his dinner, and had an opinion of his own about wines.

He had been heard to assert that, for real quiet comfort, there was not a club in London equal to it; but his hearers were not aware that in past days he had been blackballed at the T---- and the G----.

These were accidents which Lopez had a gift of keeping in the background.

His present companion, Everett Wharton, had, as well as himself, been an original member;--and Wharton had been one of those who had hoped to find in the club a stepping-stone to high political life, and who now talked often with idle energy of the need of organization.
"For myself," said Lopez, "I can conceive no vainer object of ambition than a seat in the British Parliament.