nly let me loose here with a competent
stenographer to copy off the pages of manuscript as yet undreamed of!
I suggested this to the Major Domo.

"He wouldn't let you," he said. "It would throw the whole scheme out
of gear."

"I don't see why," I ventured.

"It is simple," rejoined the Major Domo. "If you were permitted to
read the books that some day will be identified with your name, as a
sensible man, observing beforehand how futile and trivial they are to
be, some of them, you wouldn't write them, and so you would be able to
avoid a part, at least, of your destiny. If mortals were able to do
that--well, they'd become immortals, a good many of them."

I realized the justice of this precaution, and we passed on in
silence.

"Now," said the Major Domo, after we had traversed the length of the
library, "we are almost there. That gorgeous door directly ahead of
you is the entrance to Jupiter's reception-room. Before we enter,
however, we must step into the office of Midas, on the left."

"Midas?" I said. "And what, pray, is his function? Is he the
registrar?"

"No, indeed," laughed the Major Domo. "I presume down where you live
he would be called the Court Tailor. The sartorial requirements of
Jupiter are so regal that none of his guests, invited or otherwise,
could afford, even with the riches of Cr[oe]sus, to purchase the
apparel which he demands. Hence he keeps Midas here to supply, at his
expense, the garments in which his visitors may appear before him. You
didn't think you were going into Jupiter's presence in those golf
duds, did you?"

"I never thought anything about it," said I. "But how long will it
take Midas to fit me out?"

"He touches your garments, that's all," said my guide, "and in that
instant they are changed to robes of richest gold. We then place a
necklace of gems about your neck, composed of rubies, emeralds,
amethysts, and sapphires, alternating with pearls, none smaller than a
hen's egg; next we place a jewelled staff of ebony in your hand; a
golden helmet, having at either side the burnished wings of the
imperial eagles of Jove, and bearing upon its crest an opal that
glistens like the sun through the slight haze of a translucent cloud,
will be placed upon your head; richly decorated sandals of cloth of
gold will adorn your feet, and about your waist a girdle of linked
diamonds--beside which the far-famed Orloff diamond of the Russian
treasury is an insignificant bit of glass--will