What will they talk about?"
"Almost anything; you never can tell. Come along." Truesdale, as an
individual, interested Brower but moderately; Truesdale, as Jane's
brother, interested him extremely. "You state your case--that's the idea;
and the worse you make it, the better the face they try to put on it."
"Do I? Well, I don't know that I've _got_ a case. And if I had, I might
prefer to keep it to myself. However...."
The Consolation Club met in an upper chamber on Erie Street, and carried
on their deliberations under a large plaster bust of the prince of
optimists. The patient Emerson listened to the discussion of many a
burning question, and witnessed the application of many an alleviating
salve. Sometimes the question was personal; they soothed the book-keeper
who had been cut on the street by his employer's daughter. Sometimes it
was national; they commiserated the citizen who had been intimidated
at the polling-booth. Sometimes it was a question of right--like a
uniform divorce law; sometimes merely a question of expediency--like the
tariff. But principally they discussed the affairs of a vast and sudden
municipality; they bade one another not to despair, after all, either of
the city or of the republic. And towards eleven o'clock the priests of
the cult saw an offering of cheese-sandwiches and beer set before their
idol, and presently, in true sacerdotal fashion, they fell upon these
viands on their own account.
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