"Madame la Comtesse begs to inform monsieur that she would be grateful
if monsieur would be kind enough to see madame in her apartments."




V.

A REPUBLICAN COUNTESS.


"Madame la Comtesse!" A Peruvian or Argentine countess? Or have these
plutocrats of the great republic some special distinguishing titles,
such as "Silver King," "Railway Prince," etc., and was this exotic
countess the daughter of some such lord of the money market? At any
rate, I had to obey her polite commands, so, throwing away my cigar, I
bowed to Mr. Dumany and followed the lead of the valet.

In crossing a long suite of tastefully-furnished rooms, I noticed the
entire absence of family pictures. They had no ancestors, or did not
boast of them. No farthingaled, white-wigged ladies in hooped skirts and
trailing brocade robes; no mail-clad, chivalrous-looking gentlemen, with
marshals' staffs, keys, and like emblems of rank and high station; or
else these, too, had gone over to New York to subdue with their haughty
grandeur the eyes of less high-born mortals.

There was something else I missed in these beautiful chambers--the usual
obtrusive, caressed and pampered pet animal of a great lady. No
paroquet, no monkey, no little, silken-haired lap-dog, no St. Bernard or
Newfoundland dog, no cat, not even a little canary bird, was to be met