y would, I doubt not,
still be doing business at the old stand, and Mr. AEneas would not have
grown round-shouldered giving his poor father a picky-back ride on the
opening night of the horse-show, so graphically depicted by Virgil."

"I never heard about that," said Trilby. "It sounds like a very funny
story, though."

"Well, it wasn't so humorous for some as it was for others," said
Cassandra, with a sly glance at Helen. "The fact is, until you mentioned
it yourself, it never occurred to me that there was much fun in any
portion of the Trojan incident, excepting perhaps the delirium tremens of
old Laocoon, who got no more than he deserved for stealing my thunder. I
had warned Troy against the Greeks, and they all laughed at me, and said
my eye to the future was strabismatic; that the Greeks couldn't get into
Troy at all, even if they wanted to. And then the Greeks made a great
wooden horse as a gift for the Trojans, and when I turned my X-ray gaze
upon it I saw that it contained about six brigades of infantry, three
artillery regiments, and sharp-shooters by the score. It was a sort of
military Noah's Ark; but I knew that the prejudice against me was so
strong that nobody would believe what I told them. So I said nothing. My
prophecies never came true, they said, failing to observe that my warning
as to what would be was in itself the cause of their non-fulfilment. But
desiring to save Troy, I sent for Laocoon and told him all about it, and
he went out and announced it as his own private prophecy; and then, having
tried to drown his conscience in strong waters, he fell a victim to the
usual serpentine hallucination, and everybody said he wasn't sober, and
therefore unworthy of belief. The horse was accepted, hauled into the
city, and that night orders came from hindquarters to the regiments
concealed inside to march. They marched, and next morning Troy had been
removed from the map; ninety per cent. of the Trojans died suddenly, and
AEneas, grabbing up his family in one hand and his gods in the other, went
yachting for several seasons, ultimately settling down in Italy. All of
this could have been avoided if the Trojans would have taken the hint from
my prophecies. They preferred, however, not to do it, with the result that
to-day no one but Helen and myself knows even where Troy was, and we'll
never tell."

"It is all true," said Helen, proudly. "I was the woman who was at the
bottom of it all, and I can testify th