r."

"And then," said some other one of the party,--"then there was Bouffon
Le Grand--another extraordinary personage in his way. He grew deranged
through love, and fancied himself possessed of two heads. One of
these he maintained to be the head of Cicero; the other he imagined a
composite one, being Demosthenes' from the top of the forehead to
the mouth, and Lord Brougham's from the mouth to the chin. It is not
impossible that he was wrong; but he would have convinced you of his
being in the right; for he was a man of great eloquence. He had an
absolute passion for oratory, and could not refrain from display. For
example, he used to leap upon the dinner-table thus, and--and-"

Here a friend, at the side of the speaker, put a hand upon his shoulder
and whispered a few words in his ear, upon which he ceased talking with
great suddenness, and sank back within his chair.

"And then," said the friend who had whispered, "there was Boullard, the
tee-totum. I call him the tee-totum because, in fact, he was seized
with the droll but not altogether irrational crotchet, that he had been
converted into a tee-totum. You would have roared with laughter to
see him spin. He would turn round upon one heel by the hour, in this
manner--so--"

Here the friend whom he had just interrupted by a whisper, performed an
exactly similar office for himself.

"But then," cried the old lady, at the top of her voice, "your Monsieur
Boullard was a madman, and a very silly madman at best; for who, allow
me to ask you, ever heard of a human tee-totum? The thing is absurd.
Madame Joyeuse was a more sensible person, as you know. She had a
crotchet, but it was instinct with common sense, and gave pleasure
to all who had the honor of her acquaintance. She found, upon mature
deliberation, that, by some accident, she had been turned into a
chicken-cock; but, as such, she behaved with propriety. She flapped
her wings with prodigious effect--so--so--and, as for her crow, it
was delicious!

Cock-a-doodle-doo!--cock-a-doodle-doo!--cock-a-doodle-de-doo
dooo-do-o-o-o-o-o-o!"

"Madame Joyeuse, I will thank you to behave yourself!" here interrupted
our host, very angrily. "You can either conduct yourself as a lady
should do, or you can quit the table forthwith-take your choice."

The lady (whom I was much astonished to hear addressed as Madame
Joyeuse, after the description of Madame Joyeuse she had just given)
blushed up to the eyebrows, and seemed excee