"Because it seems strange like, Mr. Ferdinand," said Gustavus, lifting
the glass to his lips, the _French Revolution_ to his eyes.

"It do seem strange, Gustavus," answered Mr. Ferdinand, leaving out the
"like" in a cultivated manner. "It do."

In the drawing-room the Prophet stood, with clenched hands, gazing
through the telescope at Mercury and Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn and
Venus, while, on the second floor, Mrs. Fancy Quinglet, Mrs. Merillia's
devoted, but occasionally disconcerting, maid, swathed her mistress's
ankle in bandages previously steeped in cold water and in vinegar.



CHAPTER II

MALKIEL THE SECOND IS BETRAYED BY THE YOUNG LIBRARIAN

Mrs. Merillia's accident made a very deep impression upon the Prophet's
mind. He thought it over carefully, and desired to discuss it in all its
bearings with Mrs. Fancy Quinglet, who had been his confidante for full
thirty years. Mrs. Fancy--who had not been married--was no longer a
pretty girl. Indeed it was possible that she had never, even in her
heyday, been otherwise than moderately plain. Now, at the age of
fifty-one and a half, she was a faithful creature with a thin,
pendulous nose, a pale, hysteric eye, a tendency to cold in the head
and chilblains in the autumn of the year, and a somewhat incoherent and
occasionally frenzied turn of mind. Argument could never at any time
have had much effect upon her nature, and as she grew towards maturity