ce."

"I thought, somehow, from what you've been saying, that it _would_ be
there," remarked the Senator patiently.

"Well, sir, I tried to control myself, but I guess the clerk would tell
you I was pretty wild. There wasn't an argument I didn't use. I threw as
many lights on the situation as they did on the Falls. I asked him how
it would be if a person preferred his Falls plain? I told him I paid
him board and lodging for what Schaffhausen could show me, not for what
I could show Schaffhausen. I used the words 'pillage,' 'outrage,' and
other unmistakable terms, and I spoke of communicating the matter to the
American Consul at Berne."

"And after that?" inquired the Senator.

"Oh, it wasn't any use. After that I paid, and moved. Moved right up
here, this morning. But I thought about it a good deal on the way, and
concluded that, if I wasn't prepared to sample every hotel within ten
miles of this cataract for the sake of not being imposed upon, I'd have
to take up a different attitude. So I walked up to the manager the
minute we arrived, fierce as an Englishman--beg your pardon, Squire
Mafferton, but the British _have_ a ferocious way with hotel managers,
as a rule. I didn't mean anything personal--and said to him exactly as
if it was my hotel, and he was merely stopping in it, 'Sir,' I said, 'I
understand that the guests of this hotel are allowed to subscribe to an
electric illumination of the Falls of the Rhine. You may put me down for
ten francs. Now I'm prepared, for the first time, to appreciate the
evening's entertainment."

Shortly after the recital of Mr. Malt's experiences the illumination
began, and we realised what it was to drink coffee in fairyland. Poppa
advises me, however, to attempt no description of the Falls of
Schaffhausen by any light, because "there," he says, "you will come into
competition with Ruskin." The Senator is perfectly satisfied with
Ruskin's description of the Falls; he says he doesn't believe much could
be added to it. Though he himself was somewhat depressed by them, he
found that he liked them so much better than Niagara. I heard him myself
tell five different Alpine climbers, in precise figures, how much more
water went over our own cataract.

It was discovered that evening that Mr. and Mrs. Malt, and Emmeline, and
Miss Callis and the Count were going on to Heidelberg and down the Rhine
by precisely the same train and steamer that we had ourselves selected.
Mrs. Malt was look