have the Queen, and the President of the
United States, and several other distinguished persons, if we may trust
what they tell about themselves.

After we had listened to Number Five's story, I was requested to read a
couple of verses written by me when the guest of my friends, whose name
is hinted by the title prefixed to my lines.

LA MAISON D'OR.

BAR HARBOR.

From this fair home behold on either side
The restful mountains or the restless sea:
So the warm sheltering walls of life divide
Time and its tides from still eternity.

Look on the waves: their stormy voices teach
That not on earth may toil and struggle cease.
Look on the mountains: better far than speech
Their silent promise of eternal peace.

VIII.

I had intended to devote this particular report to an account of my
replies to certain questions which have been addressed to me,--questions
which I have a right to suppose interest the public, and which,
therefore, I was justified in bringing before The Teacups, and presenting
to the readers of these articles.

Some may care for one of these questions, and some for another. A good
many young people think nothing about life as it presents itself in the
far horizon, bounded by the snowy ridges of threescore and the dim peaks
beyond that remote barrier. Again, there are numbers of persons who know
nothing at all about the Jews; while, on the other hand, there are those
who can, or think they can, detect the Israelitish blood in many of their
acquaintances who believe themselves of the purest Japhetic origin, and
are full of prejudices about the Semitic race.

I do not mean to be cheated out of my intentions. I propose to answer my
questioners on the two points just referred to, but I find myself so much
interested in the personal affairs of The Teacups that I must deal with
them before attacking those less exciting subjects. There is no use, let
me say here, in addressing to me letters marked "personal," "private,"
"confidential," and so forth, asking me how I came to know what happened
in certain conversations of which I shall give a partial account. If
there is a very sensitive phonograph lying about here and there in
unsuspected corners, that might account for some part of my revelations.
If Delilah, whose hearing is of almost supernatural delicacy, reports to
me what she overhears, it might explain a part of the mystery. I do not
want to accuse Delila