e man from whom
I had just parted. By the costume I knew that the original had lived in
the last century; and the legend beneath the head, engraved in a
flowing script, asserted this to be a likeness of "_Monsieur le Comte
de Cagliostro_."

(1895.)

THE DREAM-GOWN OF THE JAPANESE AMBASSADOR

I

After arranging the Egyptian and Mexican pottery so as to contrast
agreeably with the Dutch and the German beer-mugs on the top of the
bookcase that ran along one wall of the sitting-room, Cosmo Waynflete
went back into the bedroom and took from a half-empty trunk the little
cardboard boxes in which he kept the collection of playing-cards, and
of all manner of outlandish equivalents for these simple instruments of
fortune, picked up here and there during his two or three years of
dilettante travelling in strange countries. At the same time he brought
out a Japanese crystal ball, which he stood upon its silver tripod,
placing it on a little table in one of the windows on each side of the
fireplace; and there the rays of the westering sun lighted it up at
once into translucent loveliness.

The returned wanderer looked out of the window and saw on one side the
graceful and vigorous tower of the Madison Square Garden, with its
Diana turning in the December wind, while in the other direction he
could look down on the frozen paths of Union Square, only a block
distant, but as far below him almost as though he were gazing down from
a balloon. Then he stepped back into the sitting-room itself, and noted
the comfortable furniture and wood-fire crackling in friendly fashion
on the hearth, and his own personal belongings, scattered here and
there as though they were settling themselves for a stay. Having
arrived from Europe only that morning, he could not but hold himself
lucky to have found these rooms taken for him by the old friend to whom
he had announced his return, and with whom he was to eat his Christmas
dinner that evening. He had not been on shore more than six or seven
hours, and yet the most of his odds and ends were unpacked and already
in place as though they belonged in this new abode. It was true that he
had toiled unceasingly to accomplish this, and as he stood there in his
shirt-sleeves, admiring the results of his labors, he was conscious
also that his muscles were fatigued, and that the easy-chair before the
fire opened its arms temptingly.

He went again into the bedroom, and took from one of his many tr