fashion. The ladies sang la Syrene, dressed their hair la Mermede,
and themselves la Fantastique; which, by-the-bye, was not new; and the
gentlemen wore boa-constrictor cravats and waltzed la mer Indienne --
a title probably suggested by a remembrance of the dangers of the sea.

It was soon discovered that, without taking into consideration the
average annual advantages which would necessarily spring from their new
connection, the profits which must accrue upon the present expedition
alone had already doubled the capital of the island. Everybody in
Vraibleusia had either made a fortune, or laid the foundation of one.
The penniless had become prosperous, and the principal merchants and
manufacturers, having realised large capitals, retired from business.
But the colossal fortunes were made by the gentlemen who had assisted
the administration in raising the price of the public funds and in
managing the issues of the pink shells. The effect of this immense
increase of the national wealth and of this creation of new and powerful
classes of society was speedily felt. Great moves to the westward were
perpetual, and a variety of sumptuous squares and streets were
immediately run up in that chosen land. Butlers were at a premium;
coach-makers never slept; card-engravers, having exhausted copper, had
recourse to steel; and the demand for arms at the Heralds' College was
so great that even the mystical genius of Garter was exhausted, and
hostile meetings were commenced between the junior members of some
ancient families, to whom the same crest had been unwittingly
apportioned; but, the seconds interfering, they discovered themselves to
be relations. All the eldest sons were immediately to get into
Parliament, and all the younger ones as quickly into the Guards; and the
simple Fantaisian Envoy, who had the peculiar felicity of taking
everything au pied du lettre, made a calculation that, if these
arrangements were duly effected, in a short time the Vraibleusian