people clamored for him. Progressive socials were arranged in his honor
at all the leading social centres in their eagerness to cultivate his
society. Some had faint recollections of having seen him at times,
others claimed to have heard of him at his hermitage, but they all
pretended to have known him personally and thoroughly, and many even
suspected that he possessed more, intrinsically, than he had revealed
superficially. He was the lion of the hour, and he did not forget to
hand around the coin in his efforts to retain the position which he had
secured.

When his mansion was turned over by the contractor, and had been
accepted by the architect, he issued invitations to one of the most
magnificent social functions which had ever erupted at Ashcroft. Those
who were invited were flattered, and those who were not called were
grossly insulted and wondered what disqualified them. They danced the
"tango," and the "bango," and the "flango," and all the "light
fantastics" until their feet went on strike, and their ear drums had
become phonographic and reproduced the music with a perpetual motion
which could not be stopped. Every lady was eager to reveal the dancing
secrets to mine host, and before the evening was over he could waltz,
tango, and do many of the up-to-date ridiculous "stunts."

And then they dined on a French dinner. It was cooked in French style,
and they ate it in French; and then they drank French toasts to the King
of England, the Governor-General of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and the
gentlemen drank to the ladies in general all over the world. Then the
ladies proposed a French toast to "mine host." Not one of them could
speak French, although a few of them could repeat, parrot-like, the
words "Parlez-vous Francais?" but they only knew it as a "foreign
phrase" which sounded extremely cultured.