his
friend I shall ever keep in grateful remembrance." Then I pinned the
card to the wall between two bookcases.

During the rest of that day I found myself in a state of unreasonable
exaltation. Several times I put to myself the questions: Why is it that
you feel so cheerful and so gay? Why have you the inclination to whistle
and to dance in your room? Why do you light a cigar, and let it go out
through forgetfulness? Why do you answer your grandmother at random, and
feel an inclination to take a long walk by yourself, although you know
there are people invited to an afternoon tea?

I was not able to give an adequate answer to these questions, nor did I
very much care to. I knew that my high spirits were caused by the
discoveries the good Vespa had enabled me to make, and the fact that
this reason could not be proved adequate did not trouble me at all; but
prudence and a regard for my own interests made it very plain to me that
other people should not know I had been exalted, and how. If I desired
my nun to continue as my secretary, I must not let any one know that I
cared in the least to hear her voice, or to have the front of her bonnet
turned towards me.

At dinner, that day, my grandmother remarked to me:--

"Are you still satisfied with the House of Martha's sister? Does she do
your work as you wish to have it done?"

I leaned back in my chair, and answered with deliberation:--

"Yes, I think she will do very well, and that after more practice she
will do better. As it is, she is industrious and attentive. I place
great stress upon that point, for I do not like to repeat my sentences;
but she has a quick ear, and catches every word."

"Then," asked my grandmother, "you do not wish to make a change at
present?"

"Oh, no," I said; "it would be very annoying to begin again with a new
amanuensis. I am getting accustomed to this person, and that is a very
important matter with me. So I do not wish to make any change so long as
this sister does her work properly."

"I must say," resumed my grandmother, after a little pause, in which she
seemed to be considering the subject, "that I was not altogether in
favor of that young woman taking the position of your secretary. She can
have had but little experience, and I thought that an older and steadier
person would answer your purpose much better; but this one was
unemployed at the time, and wished very much to do literary work; and as
the institution needed the mo