e to Caesar.

"Yes, I think we ought to station a veteran at the door," retorted
Caesar.

"A veteran! No, for mercy's sake! Poor lady! A warrior in active
service, one on whom all the antipyrine in the world would make no
impression," Mlle. Cadet replied maliciously.

Caesar smiled at the allusion.

_SILENO MACARRONI_

Among the people there was one gentlerman that attracted Mlle. Cadet's
special attention. He was apart from any group, but he knew everybody
that arrived. This gentleman was fat, smiling, smooth-shaven, with a
round, chubby, rosy face and the body of a Silenus. When he spoke
he arched and lowered his eyebrows alternately, rolled his eyes,
gesticulated with his fat, soft hands, and smiled and showed his teeth.

His way of greeting people was splendid.

"Come sta, marchesa?" he would say. "Cavaliere!" "Commendatore!"
"La contessina va bene?" "Oh! Egregio!"

And the good gentleman would spread his arms, and close them, and
look as if he wanted to embrace the whole of humanity to his abdomen,
covered with a white waistcoat.

"Who can that gentleman be?" Mlle. Cadet asked various times.

"That? That is Signor Sileno Macarroni," said Caesar, "Commander of the
Order of the Mighty Belly, Knight of the Round Buttocks, and of other
distinguished Orders."

"He is a singer," said the Countess Brenda to Mlle. de Sandoval in a low
tone.

"He is a singer," repeated Mlle. de Sandoval to her governess in a
similar tone.

"Sileno Macarroni is a singer," said Mlle. Cadet, with equal
mysteriousness, addressing Caesar.

"But is our friend Macarroni going to sung?" asked Caesar.

The question was passed from one person to another, and it was
discovered that Macarroni was going to sing. As a matter of fact, the
fat Silenus did sing, and everybody was startled to hear a high tenor
voice issue from within that voluminous human being. The fat Silenus had
the misfortune to sing false in the midst of his bravest trills, and the
poor soul was overcome, despite the applause.

"Poor Macarroni!" said Caesar, "his high tenor heart must be broken
to bits." "He is going," put in Mlle. Cadet. "What a shame!" Sileno
vanished and the pianist began to play waltzes.

_THE WORLD AS A ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN_

Carminatti was the first on the floor with his partner, who was the
Marchesa Sciacca.

The Maltese lady danced with an abandon and a feline languor that
imposed respect. One of the San Martino girls, dressed in w