now be approaching the difficult passage of her narration. "It was so
perfectly new and unconventional. She got on very well speaking Italian
with the officers, for she knew as much of it as they did."

Here Mrs. Elmore paused, and glanced hesitatingly at her husband. "They
only made one little mistake; but that was at the beginning, and they
soon got over it." Elmore suffered, but he did not ask what it was, and
his wife went on with smooth caution. "Lily thought it was just as it is
at home, and she mustn't dance with any one unless they had been
introduced. So after the first dance with the Spanish consul, as her
escort, a young officer came up and asked her; and she refused, for she
thought it was a great piece of presumption. Afterwards the princess
told her she could dance with any one, introduced or not, and so she
did; and pretty soon she saw this first officer looking at her very
angrily, and going about speaking to others and glancing toward her. She
felt badly about it, when she saw how it was; and she got Mr. Hoskins to
go and speak to him. Mr. Hoskins asked him if he spoke English, and the
officer said No; and it seems that he didn't know Italian either, and
Mr. Hoskins tried him in Spanish,--he picked up a little in New
Mexico,--but the officer didn't understand it; and all at once it
occurred to Mr. Hoskins to say, 'Parlez-vous Francais?' and says the
officer instantly, 'Oui, monsieur.'"

"Of course the man knew French. He ought to have tried him with that in
the beginning. What did Hoskins say then?" asked Elmore impatiently.

"He didn't say anything: that was all the French he knew."

Elmore broke into a cry of laughter, and laughed on and on with the wild
excess of a sad man when once he unpacks his heart in that way. His wife
did not, perhaps, feel the absurdity as keenly as he, but she gladly
laughed with him, for it smoothed her way to have him in this humor.
"Mr. Hoskins just took him by the arm, and said, 'Here! you come along
with me,' and led him up to the princess, where Lily was sitting; and
when the princess had explained to him, Lily rose, and mustered up
enough French to say, 'Je vous prie, monsieur, de danser avec moi,' and
after that they were the greatest friends."

"That was very pretty in her; it was sovereignly gracious," said Elmore.

"Oh, if an American girl is left to manage for herself she can _always_
manage!" cried Mrs. Elmore.

"Well, and what else?" asked her husband.