ouse,
heard his request to see Madame Bruce, and then she called to a
shock-headed boy who was looking over the bannisters, to come and
take the visitor in charge.

Two minutes' observation convinced the distinguished caller that
the servants of the Princess were not particular in the matter of
dirt.

The walls were stained, discolored, and bedaubed, and the floor
had a sufficient thickness of soil for a vegetable garden; at one
end of the hall, indeed, an Irish woman was on her knees, making
experimental excavations, possibly with a view to planting early
lettuce and peppergrass.

A glance at the shock-headed boy showed a peculiarity in his
visual organs; his eyes, which were black naturally, had
evidently suffered in some kind of a fisticuff demonstration, and
one of them still showed the marks; it was twice black, naturally
and artificially; it had a dual nigritude, and might, perhaps, be
called a double-barrelled black eye. This pleasant young man
conducted his visitor to the top of the first flight of stairs,
where he said, "Please stop here a minute," and disappeared into
the Princess's room, leaving her devoted slave alone in the hall
with two aged washtubs and a battered broom. There ensued an
immediate flurry in the rooms of the Princess, and the customer
thought of the forty black slaves, with jars of jewels on their
heads, who, in Oriental countries, are in the habit of receiving
princesses' visitors with all the honors. He hardly thought to
see the forty black slaves, with the jars of gems, but rather
expected the shock-headed youth to presently reappear, with a mug
of rubies, or a kettle of sapphires and emeralds, and invite him
in courtly language to help himself to a few--or, that that active
young man would presently come out with an amethyst snuff-box
full of diamond-dust and ask him to take a pinch, and then
present him with that expensive article as a slight token of
respect from the Princess.

"Not so, not so, my child."

The great shuffling and pitching about of things continued, as if
the furniture had been indulging in an extemporaneous jig, and
couldn't stop on so short a notice, or else objected to any
interruption of the festivities.

Finally the rattling of chairs and tables subsided into a calm,
and the boy reappeared. He came, however, without the tea-kettle
full of valuables, and minus even the snuff-box; he merely
remarked, with an insinuating wink of the lightest-colored eye,