hours come to those who know how
to wait. We descended to the showy table, with its floral decorations of
paper, muslin, and gay paint, the ladies in the evening dress of
flowers, trains, and _decolletee_ bodices which is the absurd custom of
pretentious London _pensions_. We glanced along the table to note the
new-comers. They were there, neatly and stylishly dressed in
walking-costumes. They were three quiet gentlemanly and lady-like
persons, but their faces were Medusa-like to almost every American who
gazed upon them. The foreigners looked intensely amused at this collapse
of the American contingent,--all save our Danish landlord, who stared
with amazement. Next day our new-comers disappeared.

"How in the world did you _congedier_ them?" somebody asked.

"I told them my Americans admire enough coppery Turks, South Americans,
Japanese, and East Indians, but they turn to stone at sight of niggers,"
answered Mr. Nodskou.

The line was certainly not drawn at color, for our Parsees were dusky
enough, goodness knows, and them our maidens found very captivating.
Several of them spoke no English, and it was the fascinating pastime of
our English, Australian, and American girls to teach them our common
language. But the result was, alas, not a little confusing to our
Parsees.

"Don't fancy you are learning English from those Americans," warned
Britannia. "Their accent is horrible: they say the weather is 'fair'
when they mean 'fine,' they call their luggage 'baggage,' and when they
speak of their travelling-boxes talk of their 'trunks,' like
elephants!"

"Don't be fooled by English English," advised Columbia: "the accent is
like a mouthful of pudding, and when they mean to say the weather is bad
they say it is 'nawsty;' they call their rubbers 'galoshes,' their
depots 'stations,' and when they start on a journey they get their
'boxes' together, like sweet-biscuit-peddlers."

"Don't mind what either of them say," quoth Miss Melbourne. "Both are
wrong. It is only we Australians, living between the two branches of the
language, as it were, who select the best and gobble it."

"What must it to say when I have such a fear, _such_ a fear, that I
speak not?" asked one of the Parsees.

"Say you're dickey on your pins," laughed Australia.

"Say you feel all of a goneness," spoke up Columbia.

"No; that is Americanese," flouted Britannia: "say you're in a beastly
funk!"

That our Parsees improved under such tuition was