ustration: MENU OF THE DINNER GIVEN TO ME BY THE LOTOS CLUB, NEW
YORK.]

However, I live to reach Cannon Street and the mansion of the "Gill."

I am soon ushered into the Cedar Room, where I am received by the Master
and the Wardens in their robes.

I mingle with the Guilders and their guests, and find the members of the
Worshipful Company informing their friends that they are now in the
Cedar Room; then they sniff, and the guests sniff and say "Charming!"
Then they remark, "What a lot of pencils it would make!" and laugh, and
the artists present agree that City folks are shoppy.

On a side table the stranger sees a number of what appear to him
diagrams of City improvements, with mains and drains and all sorts of
things, but on closer inspection they turn out to be the plans of the
table. You discover one bearing your name, and opposite it a red cross,
or perhaps I ought to say an exaggerated asterisk.

When you have taken your seat downstairs in the Banqueting Hall you
inspect your plan, from which you find that you can tell who everybody
is. Capital idea!

"Ah, seat Number 24, the great Professor Snuffers!"

You direct your gaze across the table to seat No. 24, and lo! your
cherished preconception of the Professor vanishes instanter, for his
bearing is military, and his whole appearance seems to denote muscle
rather than mind.

This plan opens up a mine of instruction and information. You refer
again, and next to the Professor you find the "Master of the Scalpers'
Company."

"Dear, me, what a clerical-looking old gentleman!" is your mental
comment.

Next you look for "The Rev. Canon Dormouse."

"Why, he's quite a youth! Can't be more than five-and-twenty, and wears
a medal and an eye-glass! How types have changed!"

It occurs to you to open a conversation with your next neighbour, which
you do by making a casual allusion to the Canon.

"Yes, dear old gentleman; does a lot for the poor--life devoted to
them."

"Dear me, does he? Now to my mind, judging from appearances, the Master
of the Scalpers' Company seems more cut out for that kind of work."

"Ha! ha! _He's_ better at curing hams than souls."

"Well, I should not have thought so, merely judging character as an
artist. Professor Snuffers seems to me also curiously unique. I know a
good many Professors, but I never met one so anti-professional in
appearance as that gentleman."

[Illustration: ALDERMAN. IDEAL. REAL.]

"Ah, Snuffers! Old frien