soon found the passage: He read, aloud with grand
scholastic intonation and in a deep voice that silenced the table as if
a prophet had just uttered Thus saith the Lord:--

"So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed
Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve
Perceiving--"

went to water her geraniums, to make a short story of it, and left
the two "conversationists," to wit, the angel Raphael and the
gentleman,--there was but one gentleman in society then, you know,--to
talk it out.

"Yet went she not, as not with such discourse
Delighted, or not capable her ear
Of what was high; such pleasure she reserved,
Adam relating, she sole auditress;
Her husband the relater she preferred
Before the angel, and of him to ask
Chose rather; he she knew would intermix
Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute
With conjugal caresses: from his lips
Not words alone pleased her."

Everybody laughed, except the Capitalist, who was a little hard of
hearing, and the Scarabee, whose life was too earnest for demonstrations
of that kind. He had his eyes fixed on the volume, however, with eager
interest.

--The p'int 's carried,--said the Member of the Haouse.

Will you let me look at that book a single minute?--said the Scarabee.
I passed it to him, wondering what in the world he wanted of Paradise
Lost.

Dermestes lardarius,--he said, pointing to a place where the edge of one
side of the outer cover had been slightly tasted by some insect.--Very
fond of leather while they 're in the larva state.

--Damage the goods as bad as mice,--said the Salesman.

--Eat half the binding off Folio 67,--said the Register of Deeds.
Something did, anyhow, and it was n't mice. Found the shelf covered with
little hairy cases belonging to something or other that had no business
there.

Skins of the Dermestes lardaraus,--said the Scarabee,--you can always
tell them by those brown hairy coats. That 's the name to give them.

--What good does it do to give 'em a name after they 've eat the binding
off my folios?--asked the Register of Deeds.

The Scarabee had too much respect for science to answer such a question
as that; and the book, having served its purposes, was passed back to
the Lady.

I return to the previous question,--said I,--if our friend the Member of
the House of Representatives will allow me to borrow the phrase. Womanly
women are very kindly critics,