d nose which seemed to be forever
pointing toward a better world. For her, it was not enough that one's
appearance and innate refinement marked one as a lady or a gentleman,
but it must be proven by a long deduction beginning with some obscure
ancestor of whom the world has never heard and whose shortcomings have
been happily buried in the oblivion of time. Could she have had her way,
the world would have been long since wrapped in pink tissue paper, tied
with blue ribbon and labeled safe. How she ever came by her dauntless
son remains a mystery; it certainly was no fault of hers.

Somebody of a pessimistic turn of mind once remarked that, if the human
race were suddenly stripped naked, it would be impossible to distinguish
the refined from the vulgar. A truly inspired utterance. For as Captain
Forest viewed his family from his plane of vantage, especially after
the leveling process had set in, they strangely reminded him of a flock
of tame geese rioting in a pond. They made a great noise and stir, but
convinced nobody.

Everybody having reached his level and been shorn of airs and
affectations, it no longer remained a question of what one was, but what
one could do. Consequently, it became daily more and more difficult to
distinguish between personalities. It is true there were occasional
flashes suggestive of submerged, latent faculties, but only flashes;
stupidity and the commonplace were the dominating notes.

It was a wonderful study in human nature, and hopeless though the
general outlook appeared, the future was not entirely without its
promise. The souls of Blanch and Chiquita shone like radiant twin stars
from out the gloomy, abysmal depths of the Egyptian darkness that had
settled over the world.

Perhaps the most remarkable and amusing feature of it all was that, with
the exception of Blanch, the others still seemed able to take themselves
seriously. They regarded the Captain's new outlook upon life as a
complete reversion to the primitive type, but luckily for them, he had
not yet lost his sense of compassion.

Recognizing the deplorable mental state to which his uncle was fast
sinking, he kept him supplied with wines and cigars, obtained from his
friend, Pedro Romero, the gambler. No man can partake of excellent wines
and cigars for any length of time without feeling his oats, as the
saying goes; and the Colonel proved no exception to the rule.

He had just finished a bottle of Burgundy and, as he sat