the inrolling tide of success. He
was all alive, full of plans, and the tale of his coming conquests was
told in his eye. Sometime in the second year of our acquaintance I
called at his studio in response to a card which he had stuck under my
office door. It was his habit to draw an outline head of himself,
something almost bordering upon a caricature, writing underneath it "I
called," together with any word he might have to say. This day he was in
his usual good spirits, and rallied me upon having an office which was
only a blind. He had a roundabout way of getting me to talk about his
personal affairs with him, and I soon saw that he had something very
interesting, to himself, to communicate. At last he said,--

"I'm going to Europe next summer."

"Is that so?" I replied. "For pleasure?"

"Well, partly."

"What's up outside of that?" I asked.

"I'm going to represent the American Architectural League at the
international convention."

"I didn't know you were an architect," I said.

"Well, I'm not," he answered, "professionally. I've studied it pretty
thoroughly."

"Well, you seem to be coming up, Louis," I remarked.

"I'm doing all right," he answered.

He went on working at his easel as if his fate depended upon what he was
doing. He had the fortunate quality of being able to work and converse
most entertainingly at the same time. He seemed to enjoy company under
such circumstances.

"You didn't know I was a baron, did you?" he finally observed.

"No," I answered, thinking he was exercising his fancy for the moment.
"Where do you keep your baronial lands, my lord?"

"In Germany, kind sir," he replied, banteringly.

Then in his customary excitable mood he dropped his brushes and stood
up.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he exclaimed, looking over his drooping
glasses.

"Why, certainly I believe you, if you are serious. Are you truly a
baron?"

"It was this way," he said. "My grandfather was a baron. My father was
the younger of two brothers. His brother got the title and what was left
of the estate. That he managed to go through with, and then he died.
Now, no one has bothered about the title--"

"And you're going back to claim it?"

"Exactly."

I took it all lightly at first, but in time I began to perceive that it
was a serious ambition. He truly wanted to be Baron S---- and add to
himself the luster of his ancestors.

With all this, the man was really not so much an aristocrat in his