The Hmmm Factor

Despite Ludlow's rather vocal protests, I decided to go off and fraternize with the other guests at the party, in the vain hope that at least one of them might want to roger me senseless.

Alas, all I seemed to meet were uptight, prissy socialites who took offence at my usual party trick whereby I pull down my trousers, unleash my Lord Palmerston, and yell: "Look, ladies! Big Ben!" One particularly sniffy woman told me that my penis was not at all reliable as a timepiece, a statement with which I took great exception, arguing that when my todger was fully erect, I knew it was precisely time for humping. She snorted and turned away, the miserable, fat sow.

One rather delectable girl did seem to be gagging for a pounding from my Palmerston. She was a young, rich heiress called Barcelona Ritz, but while she let me grope her, I soon tired of her non-stop chattering, as she warbled on about her tedious, pointless existence, and I had to go off to get more booze to help block out her awful droning.

I approached a table laden with various drinks, and began mixing myself a cocktail, not really taking note of what was going into the beverage, as I was lost deep in thought.

"You look troubled, friend," said a voice beside me. I looked up and beheld a tall, rather striking looking gentle-man, with strong cheek bones and a large, proud forehead. I smiled politely.

"I was just lamenting the lack of willing wenches at this function," I said, as I stirred my drink, watching as the glass was filled with a curious, bright orange colour.

"That's an interesting looking drink you're making there, sir," the man continued, helping himself to a glass of wine. "What do you call it?"

I took a sip, and grimaced.

"I think I'll call it the 'Filthy Arsehole'," I answered. "On account of the fact it tastes like shit."

This made the man roar with laughter, and he proffered forth his hand to shake mine.

"Abraham Lincoln," he beamed, introducing himself. "I'm a Republican lawyer."

"Lord Likely," I shook Lincoln's astonishingly large hand. "I'm an aristocrat from England."

"Likely, huh?" mused Lincoln, stroking his chin. "You must be Ludlow's brother, yes?"

"You are quite absolutely and unerringly correct," I nodded, swigging from the 'Filthy Arsehole' again, momentarily forgetting it's horrendous taste. "Do you know my brother then, Mr. Lincoln?"

"Not personally," replied Lincoln. "I am here as a guest of his employer, Mr. William Cullen Bryant, the editor of the New-York Evening Post. He's helping me to write a speech I am supposed to make in Kalamazoo, in Michigan, a month hence."

"A speech, eh? What is it about, if you do not mind me asking?"

"I am campaigning to get slavery abolished in this country," Lincoln said. "I feel very strongly that the United States of America should no longer be a home to slaves."

"Oh, quite, quite," I agreed. "It's high time we drove those awful Negroes from the land, eh?"

"That...is not what I am trying to achieve," Lincoln frowned. "I am arguing that every man in America should be a free man. God created us all equally, you know."

"Some of us more equally than others," I quipped, while pointing at my crotch.

"I wish for a day when the slaves are emancipated and the awful spectre of slavery that still haunts this continent is driven out," Lincoln continued, ignoring my hilarious aside. "A spectre that your government left us with, I hasten to add."

"Well, it's not easy running a massive Empire, you know. Good help is so hard to find," I replied. "Plus, we are notoriously lazy. Of course, we officially outlawed slavery in the British Empire some one score and two years ago."

"Oh, 'one score'," Lincoln muttered, producing a notebook and pencil from his pocket. "I like that." He jotted something in the book, then snapped it shut.

"I think it is far more the measure of a man if he can keep a fellow man in his employ when the other man has free will." I continued. "I