s
should sound like boasting; I assure you they are not so intended. I
trust that now I have cleared up the mystery to your perfect
satisfaction."

"Charmingly," said Fillmore Flagg, "Nevertheless my fairyland illusions
still abide with me; I confess I am still under the spell of the great
happiness they have given to me--I shall never forget it. The truth in
this case proves even stranger than fiction; I quite agree with you that
in all the wide world there is nothing like this! It seems to me that
those extraordinary melophones yield the finest music I have ever heard.
In sweetness and purity of tone, softness and wealth of harmony, which
is pervaded by some electric quality of inspiration, so stirring, so
thrilling that every nerve and every cell in the body responds. They
stand unrivaled as the very acme of musical art. I now understand why
your lovely home here should be named 'Fairy Fern Cottage.' I fully
appreciate the significance of the title. This royal temple of ferns
makes the name most fittingly appropriate, and easily ranks this cottage
as the eighth wonder of the world! The fame of its rare beauty should be
known in every land. You ought to be very proud of it. I assure you,
Miss Fenwick, that you are abundantly justified in praising it
enthusiastically at all times, without fear of being considered
egotistical. But tell me, if I may be permitted to ask, who was the
wonderful genius who first conceived and planned the building of this
imposing line of arches? So useful, so ornamental, so unique, yet so
perfectly adapted as a summer and a winter home for your ferns and
flowers and, withal, offering such a perfect title to your unrivaled
cottage home."

"Thank you, Mr. Flagg, for that question. In my reply I am eager to pay
a deserved tribute to the dearest and noblest of men--my father.
Inspired by his love for me, his brilliant mind conceived the entire
plan and purpose of this curiously novel structure. He succeeded in
completing it and also in filling it with the original collection of
ferns, without my knowledge. On the morning of my fifteenth birthday,
he brought me here to bestow upon me this priceless gift. The surprise
was a perfect one. When he made me understand that he gave with it a
deed to the cottage and grounds, the surprise became so intense that it
fairly took my breath away. I was so overjoyed that by turns I laughed,
and cried, and hugged papa, until I came very near to having a genuin