happy. At last I had drawn a prize! I was successful in everything;
I was rich, honored, powerful--what more can I say? I astonished the
world--or rather, I astonished Ellen Gilmore, who for me was the
whole world. Hermann, have you ever been as mad? Have you, too, in a
waking dream, been in turn a statesman, a millionaire, the author of
a sublime work, a victorious general, the head of a great political
party? Have you dreamt nonsense such as that? I, who am here, have
been all I say--in dreamland. Never mind; that was a good time.
Ellen Gilmore, whom I have just mentioned, was the eldest sister of
one of my pupils, Francis Gilmore, the most undisciplined boy of the
school. His parents, nevertheless, insisted on his learning
something; and as I had the reputation of possessing unwearying
patience, I was selected to give him private lessons. That was how I
obtained a footing in the Gilmore family. Later on, when they had
found out that I was somewhat of a musician--you may remember,
perhaps, that for an amateur I was a tolerable performer on the
piano--I went every day to the house to teach Latin and Greek to
Francis, and music to Ellen.

"Now, picture to yourself the situation, and then laugh at your
friend as he has laughed at himself many a time. On the one side--
the Gilmore side--a large fortune and no lack of pride; an
intelligent, shrewd, and practical father; an ambitious and vain
mother; an affectionate but spoilt boy; and a girl of nineteen,
surpassingly lovely, with a cultivated mind and great good sense. On
the other hand, you have Henry Warren, aged twenty-nine; in his
dreams the author of a famous work, or the commander-in-chief of the
Northern armies, or. it may be, President of the Republic--in
reality, Professor at Elmira College, with a modest stipend of
seventy dollars a month. Was it not evident that the absurdity of my