n confided in her no more."

"And how did she take it?" I asked.

"She declined to take it at all," said Cupid, with a sigh. "She
demanded that I should tell her everything on penalty of losing
her--and I lost her. She left me a little over a thousand years ago,
and my mother for the same reason sent me adrift fifteen hundred or
more years ago. That is why I am eking out a living running an
elevator," he added, sadly. "Still, I'm happy here. I go up when I
feel sad, and go down when I feel glad. On the whole, I am as happy as
any of the gods."

"However, Dan," I cried, sympathetically, slapping him on the back,
"you have your official position, and that will keep you in--ah--well,
you don't seem to need 'em, but it would keep you in clothes if you
could be persuaded to wear them."

"No," said the little elevator boy, sadly. "I don't want 'em in this
climate--nor are they necessary in any other. All over the world, my
dear fellow, _true_ love is ever warm."

There was a decided interval. I felt sorry for the little lad who had
been a god and who had become an elevator boy, so I said to him:

"Never mind, Danny, you are sure of your office always."

"I wish it were so," said he, sadly. "But really, sir, it isn't. You
may think that love rules all things nowadays, but that is a fallacy.
Of late years a rival concern has sprung up. I have found my office
subjected to a most annoying competition which has attracted away from
me a large number of my closest followers. In the days when we
acknowledged ourselves to be purely heathen, love was regarded with
respect, but now all that is changed. Opposite my office in the
government building there is a matrimonial corporation doing a very
large business, by which the fees of my position are greatly reduced.
Possibly after you have had your audience with Jove to-morrow you will
take a turn about the city, in which event you will see this trust's
big brazen sign. You can't miss it if you walk along Mercury Avenue.
It reads:

+----------------------------------+
| MAMMON & CO. |
| Matchmakers |
| |
| FORTUNES GUARANTEED: |
| HAPPINESS EXTRA |
| |
| GEO. W. MAMMON |
| President |
| |
| HORACE GREED |
| Gen'l Manager |
|