Robert wears a conspicuous decoration in his buttonhole whenever we
have a dinner. The first time Johan noticed it he almost fainted away,
as he knows every decoration under the sun, and, thinking it looked
like the _Légion d'Honneur_, he proposed to question Robert about it;
but Robert eluded the master's clutch as the door-bell was ringing.
Johan was considerably disturbed until he learned the truth, which was
that Robert belonged to a reading-club--a Browning and Tennyson
club--and this was its badge. Our colleagues thought he was the
Minister from Hayti!


WASHINGTON, _Spring, 1877_.

Dear Mother,--I must tell you the honor which has been conferred on me.
I have been admitted into the enchanted circle of the Brain Club. I am
an honorary member. Mrs. Dahlgren is the president, and I suppose all
the set of intellectuals, "_Les élus des élus_" belong to it. I have
only been twice to the meetings. I think I am a failure as far as
brains go, but the members like my singing, and I am only called upon
to take an active part when the members are falling off their chairs,
trying with literary efforts to keep awake.

The first meeting was a ghastly affair. The subject to be discussed was
the "Metamorphosis of Negative Matter." You may imagine that I was
staggered. I had no more idea what negative matter was than the
inhabitants of Mars. They took us alphabetically. When they got to "H,"
Mrs. Dahlgren (who, as president, sat in a comfortable chair with arms
to it, while the others sat on hard dining-room, cane-bottomed chairs)
turned to me and said, "Has Mrs. _Hegermann_ anything to say concerning
the Metamorphosis of Negative Matter?" I had on my blue velvet gown,