answered the courteous Southerner. "I was
going to remahk that the only pehson in whom I feel a family intehest is
my lamented wife's sistah, a Madame Du Plessis, who has resided foh many
yeahs in yoah city of To-hon-to. May I enquiah, gentlemen, if you have,
either of you, heahd the name befoah?"

Coristine replied that, incidentally, he had heard the names of both
Madame Du Plessis and her daughter.

"I am awaah, suh, that my wife's sister has a daughtah. Can you tell me
of my sister-in-law's suhcumstances, and what her daughtah, my niece, is
like in appeahance?"

"Only from hearsay, Colonel. Madame Du Plessis is said to be in
straightened circumstances, and I learn, from several quarters, that
Miss Du Plessis is an attractive and amiable young lady; 'illigant' is
what a countryman of mine, who served under her father, termed his young
mistress."

"And her baptismal name, suh?"

"Is Cecile, I think."

"Ah, to be suah, my deah wife's name, Cecilia, gallicized. She and
Madame Du Plessis were Castilians of Lima. Du Plessis was theah in the
ahmy, I in commehcial puhsuits, and we mahhied the sistahs, the belles
of the Rimac.

Que' es la vida? Un frenesi
Que' es la vida? Una ilusion,
Una sombra, una ficcion.

You read Spanish, Mr. Wilkinson?"

"A little, sir; I think I recognize Calderon in these lines."

"Right, Mr. Wilkinson; I thank you, suh, foh yoah pleasing
companionship. Good evening, gentlemen!" With a courtly bow, the colonel
retired from the table.

At the coloured barber's the pedestrians met Mr. Maguffin, who greeted
Coristine, saying:--

"Hopes yoh doan feel none the wuhse ob yoh ride on the po-ul," adding:
"Mistah Poley, what runs this yeah stablishment, he's my nuncle's oldes'
boy, and he abstracks a cohnah ob the same ter my disposhul foh ohfice
pupposes, supposin' I'm wahnted by folks as cahn't find me."

"That's very convenient," replied the lawyer, as he settled down in the
barber's chair.

"It am, sah. I doan' tote ox teams no moah, po-ul nor no po-ul, when I
kin drive and ride the fasses and sassies hawses that is made; no, sah,
not much!"

"You are tired of teaming, then?"

"I am wohn out, sah, wif bein' called Toby and a po-ul-cat. I doan find
no Scripcher reffunce foh Tobias, and yoh know what a po-ul-cat is; it's
nuffin moah no less nor a skink."

The victims of the barber and his assistant kept the soap out of their
mouths with difficulty. As his tormentor d