genial Scotch
school-master, one genuinely interested in learning. Had it not been for
his air of labored appreciation, and the glamour of his enormous wealth,
the dinner would have been wholly enjoyable.

One charming human touch saved the situation. The tablecloth (a
magnificent piece of linen) was worked here and there with silken
reproductions of the signatures of former distinguished guests. "Mrs.
Carnegie," our host explained, "works these signatures into the cloth
with her own hands." Each of us was given a soft pencil and requested to
add his name.

It happened that Gilder, Seton, Burroughs and myself went away together,
and the doorman showed a mild surprise in the fact that no carriage
awaited us. Gilder with comic intonation said, "Some of you fellows
ought to have saved this situation by ordering a cab."

"As the only man with a stovepipe hat the job was yours," I retorted.

This struck the rest of the party as funny. In truth, each of us except
Gilder wore some sort of soft hat, and all together we formed a sinister
group. "I don't care what _Andrew_ thinks of us," Gilder explained, "but
I hate to have his butler get such a low conception of American
authorship." On this point we all agreed--and took the Madison Avenue
street car.

Meanwhile, I was secretly dreaming of getting rich myself.

Every American, with a dollar to spare, at some time in his life takes a
shot at a gold mine. It comes early in some lives and late in others,
but it comes! In my case it came after the publication of _Hesper_ just
as I was verging on forty-five, and was the result of my brother's
connections in Mexico. Impatient of getting money by growing trees he
had resigned his position on a rubber farm and was digging gold in
Northern Mexico.

Our mine, situated about twenty miles from Camacho, was at the usual
critical stage where more capital is needed, therefore in April I
persuaded Irving Bacheller and Archer Brown to go down with me and take
a look at the property. Of course I had a lump of ore to show them--and
it was beautiful!

I recall that when this sample came to me by express, I had my first and
only conviction that my financial worries were over. Even Zulime was
impressed with my brother's smelter reports which gave the proportion of
gold to the ton, precisely set down in bold black figures. All we had to
do was to ship a sufficient number of car lots for the year and our
income would rival that of Carnegie's