``No--Mr. Clay. He's been in three real wars and about a dozen
little ones, and he's built thousands of miles of railroads, I
don't know how many thousands, but Captain Stuart knows; and he
built the highest bridge in Peru. It swings in the air across a
chasm, and it rocks when the wind blows. And the German Emperor
made him a Baron.''

``Why?''

``I don't know. I couldn't understand. It was something about
plans for fortifications. He, Mr. Clay, put up a fort in the
harbor of Rio Janeiro during a revolution, and the officers on a
German man-of-war saw it and copied the plans, and the Germans
built one just like it, only larger, on the Baltic, and when the
Emperor found out whose design it was, he sent Mr. Clay the order
of something-or-other, and made him a Baron.''

``Really,'' exclaimed the elder sister, ``isn't he afraid that
some one will marry him for his title?''

``Oh, well, you can laugh, but I think it's pretty fine, and so
does Ted,'' added Hope, with the air of one who propounds a final
argument.

``Oh, I beg your pardon,'' laughed Alice. ``If Ted approves we
must all go down and worship.''

``And father, too,'' continued Hope. ``He said he thought Mr.
Clay was one of the most remarkable men for his years that he had