onate to
so curious and elaborate an importation; but whenever he ventured to
intimate his opinion to any of the most commercial nation in the world
he was only listened to with an incredulous smile which seemed to pity
his inexperience, or told, with an air of profound self-complacency,
that in Fantaisie 'there must be great resources.'

In the meantime, public companies were formed for working the mines,
colonizing the waste lands, and cutting the coral rocks of the Indian
Isle, of all which associations Popanilla was chosen Director by
acclamation. These, however, it must be confessed, were speculations of
a somewhat doubtful nature; but the Branch Bank Society of the Isle of
Fantaisie really held out flattering prospects.

When the fleet had sailed they gave Popanilla a public dinner. It was
attended by all the principal men in the island, and he made a speech,
which was received in a rather different manner than was his sunset
oration by the monarch whom he now represented. Faintaisie and its
accomplished Envoy were at the same time the highest and the universal
fashion. The ladies sang la Syrene, dressed their hair la Mermede,
and themselves la Fantastique; which, by-the-bye, was not new; and the
gentlemen wore boa-constrictor cravats and waltzed la mer Indienne--a
title probably suggested by a remembrance of the dangers of the sea.

It was soon discovered that, without taking into consideration the
average annual advantages which would necessarily spring from their new
connection, the profits which must accrue upon the present expedition
alone had already doubled the capital of the island. Everybody in
Vraibleusia had either made a fortune, or laid the foundation of one.
The penniless had become prosperous, and the principal merchants and
manufacturers, having realised large capitals, retired from business.
But the colossal fortunes were made by the gentlemen who had assisted
the administration in raising the price of the public funds and in
managing the issues of the pink shells. The effect of this immense
increase of the national wealth and of this creation of new and powerful
classes of society was speedily felt. Great moves to the westward
were perpetual, and a variety of sumptuous squares and streets were
immediately run up in that chosen land. Butlers were at a premium;
coach-makers never slept; card-engravers, having exhausted copper, had
recourse to steel; and the demand for arms at the Heralds' College