ox of
saw-dust, expanded ineffectually upon the face of a female dog-iron. I
suggested that it warn't so bad a shot. He replied, he reckoned--Just
at this moment the full yellow face of the negro protruded itself into
the doorway. 'Mas'r,' he ejaculated, 'dat's da geman (pointing to
Prompt, whose face was seen to contract) what do up all da plomacy ob
dis establishment.' The yellow face withdrew behind the green
baize. All this time I had been careful not to disclose to Mr. Prompt
that I was minister in general to Mr. Pierce.

"'Citizen,' said he, continuing his cigar, 'that ar nigger's sassy
enough for three legations. Pierce sent him here;--for what, no one
about the establishment can tell. Anyhow, seeing it's you, I was about
giving out an idea of what an interminable muddle Pierce would get
everything into if he had but his own way; but, as there isn't time
now, and as you won't join me in a cigar, suppose we send out and have
a first-rate brandy-smash?'

"This I respectfully declined; I thought it would give him so much
trouble. Indeed, he said there was so much to do about the
establishment, and nobody to do it except himself. In reply to a
question, he said, the governor--meaning Mr. Buckanan--had worked
himself out, and was laid away to dry. At present he alone constituted
the establishment. There used to be a secretary (the salary, he had
reason to believe Uncle Sam yet paid) but nothing had been seen of him
for several months: when last heard from, he was entering into a
partnership with Monsieur Souley for the purchase of Cuba, at any
price. As for the attaches, one got no pay, and was expected by the
government to do a deal of work, while the amount paid to the other
was so small that he very wisely spent it in cab-hire to see the
sights, which it just covered. One might be almost sure of seeing the
former gentleman on the approach of a court concert, while the
presence of the other at the legation prognosticated the advent of a
drawing-room. In fact, Mr. Prompt said, with considerable logic, that
when people were only half paid they were sure to do nothing. As for
himself (here he smiled, and commenced a new cigar), why he did up the
diplomacy of the establishment by the job--that is, he absorbed in his
lean person the functions of minister plenipotentiary, secretary of
legation, and gentlemanly attaches. And for the performance of their
duties (the pickings were not worth mentioning) he would, at the end