ickets. "This is incorrect and cannot be passed." And he turned to
the superintendent.

"Diablo!" cried the latter impatiently. "Do you think I can be troubled
with luggage on such a night as this? Take it where the gentlemen desire
you! Maldicion!"

Saved once more. As we walked outside through the crowd, a deafening
cheer went up.

"What can it mean?" said H. C. "Have they discovered that I am a poet,
and all this is a little delicate attention on their part? If so, I
must say they are appreciative. Perhaps my volume of Lyrics, dedicated
to my aunt, Lady Maria, has been translated into Spanish, and
has--ahem!--found more popularity here than at home. Ah!--Oh!"

The exclamation was caused by a sudden tearing away of the omnibus we
had entered, whereby H. C. found himself sprawling in a most unpoetical
attitude. Picking himself up as carefully as if he had been made of
delicate china suffering from a few compound fractures, he rubbed his
bruised knees sympathetically, and quietly asked if we had brought a
supply of Elliman's embrocation.

So quickly one passes from poetry to prose, from the sublime to the
ridiculous.

CHAPTER III.

BLACK COFFEE--AND A CONFESSION.

Continued uproar--H. C. disillusioned--A dark night--Not like
another Caesar--More crowds--A demon scene--Fair time--Glorious days
of the past--In marble halls and labyrinthine passages--Our
excellent host--His substantial partner--Contented
minds--Picturesque court--Songless nightingales--Conscription--H.
C.'s modesty--Our host appreciative but personal--Bears the torch
of genius--A mistake--Below the salt--Host's fair
daughters--Catalonian women--The Silent Enigma--Remarkable
priest--Good intentions--Lecture on black
coffee--Confessions--Benjamin's portions--A gifted nature.

Our omnibus rattled off, with the result described. The crowd still
cheered; a prolonged and mighty strain. As we went on this grew fainter
by degrees, yet did not cease. H. C. collected his thoughts and looked
about him. In the dim glimmer of the omnibus lamp we saw shades of doubt
and disappointment in his face.

"I begin to think this ovation was not for me after all," he said. "They
would hardly go on shouting insanely when we are out of sight and
hearing. The people would have accompanied us; taken the horses out of
the omnibus; drawn us up to the inn, where I should have arrived like
another Caesar. My volume