ation of
his long watch. He no longer opposed any of my demonstrations, and
finally, with a hearty chuckle, saw me slink past him into the groves,
wardrobe in hand. Most accommodating of sentinels, why were you not in
charge of a Paris barrier during the siege?

[Illustration: THE GENTLE CERBERUS.]

Once within the park, I found that my sight had deceived me: the day was
hot, and the public, driven from the sunny walks, were concentrated in
the shade. Not a bough but sheltered its group of Arcadians. I wended
from tree to tree, describing singular zigzags on the sward. The
guardians began to eye me with lively interest. Finally, Fortune having
guided me to a beautiful thicket, a closet curtained with evergreens, I
prepared to use it for my toilet, and relinquished a sleeve of my coat.
At that moment one of my watchmen suddenly showed himself.

Looking at him with extreme seriousness, I slowly re-entered my sleeve,
and walked away with unnecessary dignity, giving the guardian my
patronage in the shape of a nod, which he did not return.

[Illustration: THE EYE OF ARGUS.]

Forbidden the green-room, what if I tried the bathroom? Hastily making
for the Square of the Obelisk, I took a carriage, engaging it by the
hour, and directing it to the nearest bathing-establishment. The driver
immediately ran off with me outside the city.

Carlsruhe is an aristocratic construction, whose princely mansions are
supposed to be supplied with their own thermal conveniences. The
locality suggested for my bath proved to be a vast suburban garden,
buried in flowers, with amorous young couples promenading the alleys,
and tables crowned with cylinders of beer, each wadded with its handful
of foam. At the extremity, on a square building, five lofty letters
spelled out the word _Baden_.

A waiter showed me a handsome bath, decorated with a tub like some Roman
mausoleum. I instructed him as to the temperature of my desired plunge.
He nodded quietly, and left me. Twenty minutes passed. I thought of my
friend Sylvester Berkley, of the document I hoped to obtain by his aid,
and, most fondly, of the hour when I could return from Carlsruhe. I
thought of the little group who at Marly were expecting and reproaching
me. Charles now, for the twentieth time, would be brushing my morning
suit and smoking-cap; Josephine, in the act of whipping a mayonnaise,
would draw anxiously to the window. The baron, my galling and
dispensable old Hohenfels, would h