manager whom I knew to be a good fellow, and I asked him for some sort of
work. He said, Yes, send the man round, and he would give him a job
copying parts for a new play he had written."

The novelist paused, and nobody laughed.

"It seems to me that your experience is instructive, rather than
amusing," said the banker. "It shows that something can be done, if you
try."

"Well," said Mr. Twelvemough, "I thought that was the moral, myself, till
the fellow came afterwards to thank me. He said that he considered
himself very lucky, for the manager had told him that there were six
other men had wanted that job."

Everybody laughed now, and I looked at my hostess in a little
bewilderment. She murmured, "I suppose the joke is that he had befriended
one man at the expense of six others."

"Oh," I returned, "is that a joke?"

No one answered, but the lady at my right asked, "How do you manage with
poverty in Altruria?"

I saw the banker fix a laughing eye on me, but I answered, "In Altruria
we have no poverty."

"Ah, I knew you would say that!" he cried out. "That's what he always
does," he explained to the lady. "Bring up any one of our little
difficulties, and ask how they get over it in Altruria, and he says they