't call it lies--has been adopted
to entrap me, if such were possible? My despatches are unreplied to, my
questions all unanswered. I stand here with the peace of Europe in my
hands, and none to counsel nor advise me. What will you say, sir, to the
very last despatch I have received from Downing Street? It runs thus:--

"'I am instructed by his Lordship to inform you, that he views
with indifference your statement of the internal condition of the
grand-duchy, but is much struck by your charge for sealing-wax.

"'I have, sir, &c.'

"This is no longer to be endured. A public servant who has filled some
of the most responsible of official stations,--I was eleven years at
Tragota, in the Argentine Republic; I was a _charge_ at Oohululoo for
eight months, the only European who ever survived an autumn there; they
then sent me special to Cabanhoe to negotiate the Salt-sprat treaty;
after that--"

Here my senses grew muddy; the gray dim light, the soft influences of
a good dinner and a sufficiency of wine, the drowsy tenor of the
Minister's voice, all conspired, and I slept as soundly as if in my bed.
My next conscious moment was as his Excellency moved his chair back, and
said,--

"I think a cup of tea would be pleasant; let us come into the
drawing-room."

CHAPTER XV. I LECTURE THE AMBASSADOR'S SISTER

On entering the drawing-room, his Excellency presented me to an elderly
lady, very thin, and very wrinkled, who received me with a cold dignity,
and then went on with her crochet-work. I could not catch her name, nor,
indeed, was I thinking of it; my whole mind was bent upon the question,
Who could she be? For what object was she there? All my terrible doubts
of the morning now rushed forcibly back to my memory, and I felt that
never had I detested a human being with the hate I experienced for her.
The pretentious stiffness of her manner, the haughty self-possession
she wore, were positive outrages; and as I looked at her, I felt myself
muttering, "Don't imagine that your heavy black moire, or your rich
falls of lace, impose upon _me_. Never fancy that this mock austerity
deceives one who reads human nature as he reads large print. I know, and
I abhor you, old woman! That a man should be to the other sex as a wolf
to the fold, the sad experience of daily life too often teaches; but
that a woman should be false to woman, that all the gentle instincts we
love to think feminine, should be debased to treachery and deg