telegraph, or what not, as the case may be. We have
no horses yet, but the Shanghaes are coming up into very
good dodos and ostriches, quite big enough for a trot for
the children.

"Only two persons of a family take tea at home. The
rest always go out to tea without invitation. At 8 P. M.
big gong again, and we meet in `Grace,' which is the
prettiest hall, church, concert-room, that you ever saw.
We have singing, lectures, theatre, dancing, talk, or
what the mistress of the night determines, till the
curfew sounds at ten, and then we all go home. Evening
prayers are in the separate households, and every one is
in bed by midnight. The only law on the statute-book is
that every one shall sleep nine hours out of every
twenty-four.

"Only one thing interrupts this general order. Three
taps on the gong means `telegraph,' and then, I tell you,
we are all on hand.

"You cannot think how quickly the days and years go
by!"

Of course, however, as I said, this could not last.
We could not subdue our world and be spending all our
time in telegraphing our dear B. M. Could it be
possible--perhaps it was possible--that they there had
something else to think of and to do besides attending to
our affairs? Certainly their indifference to Grant's