badinage and speculating whose turn it is to get
divorced next--become in time even more sobering than
a scientific study with diagrams of how to breed pheasants
or play golf. If some one would teach us the
simple art of being light-hearted he would deserve to
be placed along with Nelson on his monument."

"Oh, my dear vellow!" cried the Baron. "Do I hear
zese kind of vords from you?"

"If you starved a city-full of people, wouldn't you
expect to hear the man with the biggest appetite cry
loudest?"

The Baron's face fell further and Essington laughed
aloud.

"Come, Baron, hang it! You of all people should
be delighted to see me a fellow-member of respectable
society. I take you to be the type of the conventional
aristocrat. Why, a fellow who's been travelling in Germany
said to me lately, when I asked about you--'Von
Blitzenberg,' said he, 'he's used as a simile for
traditional dignity. His very dogs have to sit up on their
hind-legs when he inspects the kennels!' "

The Baron with a solemn face gulped down his
whisky-and-soda.

"Zat is not true about my dogs," he replied, "but