ructing the auctioneer as to the value of her chairs, furniture and
china, had left him in the dining room where the side-board had several
bottles of wine and whiskey on it. She waited for a long time hoping he
would return to show her the inventory, but as he did not appear she
went into the dining room where she found him drunk upon the floor. She
looked at the paper he held in his hand and read,

"To one revolving carpet."

Not wishing to repeat the mistake I had made in Pittsburgh, I spoke for
an hour and fifteen minutes, longer than which no one can be expected to
endure, and as we had some time before catching a midnight train, I
invited my audience on to the stage. At this the platform was stormed,
and I was seized by hands and arms, showered with compliments and, never
at any time a robust figure, so crowded and crushed that I felt
suffocated. My reverend chairman did his best, but it was not until Mr.
Horton, in a voice of thunder, begged them not to mob me as I had to
catch a train, that I was allowed to move. They all rushed to the stage
door shouting,

"We think you are wonderful!" "Why can't you stay with us?" "You must
come back!" "You're perfectly lovely!" etc.

We had to lock one of the doors of the green room, but while I was given
brandy, and congratulated by my chairman and his family, a very old
charwoman peeped in at another entrance, saying with emotional timidity,

"Excuse me, but though I am only a poor old woman who sweeps the stage,
I would like to shake hands with you. The last famous person that I
spoke to was Mme. Calve, over whom we were all crazy; I may say she let
me kiss her hand."

I turned and kissed the old lady on both her wrinkled cheeks, at which
she blest me and burst into tears. I felt like doing the same, but was
steadied by the presence of my jolly chairman and his relations. It was
with a feeling of tense gratitude that I heard the announcement of our
car. Clinging to the arm of my secretary I swayed through an
enthusiastic crowd gathered on the pavement. They were cheering, waving
handkerchiefs, and throwing up their hats. Half of the audience appeared
to have waited and collected round our motor, and we had the greatest
difficulty in reaching it. Knowing that this sort of thing will probably
never happen to me again, and with a touch of vanity that I seldom feel,
I wished my husband had been there to witness my unexpected triumph.

Upon our arrival in Montreal I saw