delight to adorn a circle he longs to enter, and where he would be
hailed with joy, through modesty, hesitates to enter it; while others,
who are of no avail in any wise whatever, walk bravely in and find
themselves secure through a quiet system of polite insistence. Among the
latter, the kind of people to be merely tolerated, we find, also, the
large majority.

Two children remarkably self-possessed seized upon Paul the moment he
entered the room: a beautiful lad as gentle and as graceful as a girl,
and his tiny sister, who bore herself with the dignity of a little lady
of Lilliput. He was happy with them, quite as happy as if they were as
old and experienced as their elders and as well entertained by them,
likewise. He never in his life made the mistake that is, alas, made by
most parents and guardians, of treating children as if they were little
simpletons who can be easily deceived. How often they look with scorn
upon their elders who are playing the hypocrite to eyes which are, for
the most part, singularly critical! Having paid his respects to those
present--he was known to all--Paul was led a willing captive into the
chamber where Harry English and a brother professional, an eccentric
comedian, who apparently never uttered a line which he had not learned
out of a play-book, were examining with genuine enthusiasm certain cases
of brilliantly tinted butterflies.

The children were quite at their ease in this house, and no wonder;
California children are born philosophers; to them the marvels of the
somewhat celebrated entomological collection were quite familiar; again
and again they had studied the peculiarities of the most rare and
beautiful specimens of insect life under the loving tutelage of their
friend, who had spent his life and a small fortune in gathering together
his treasures, and they were even able to explain in the prettiest
fashion the origin and use of the many curious objects that were
distributed about the rooms.

Meanwhile Mme. Lillian, the dramatic one, had left her bower in the bay
window and was flitting to and fro in nervous delight; she had much to
say and it was always worth listening to. With available opportunities
she would have long since become famous and probably a leader of her
sex; but it was her fate to coach those of meaner capacities who were
ultimately to win fame and fortune while she toiled on, in genteel
poverty, to the end of her weary days.

No two women could be more