nced while I do this monologue
act--you're not even expected to ask questions, as any indiscretion such
as that is apt to make the agent lose his cue. Your part comes at the
end when I give you a perfectly good little piece of patient paper,
which you may spoil any old way you like so long as you sign your name
or make your mark--all of which you will discover in due time if you
follow the professor closely and learn his habits."

Alice and Eleanor were convulsed with laughter over Allen's antics, but
the boy soon sobered down and again assumed his dignified demeanor.

"Please observe, Miss Gorham, these endless aisles of arches which form
part of three miles of stables built by Mulai Ismail, the tyrant sultan.
He was a superb horseman. It is said that he was able in one graceful
movement to mount his steed, draw his sword, and neatly decapitate the
slave who held his stirrup--"

"You are reciting that, Allen," Mrs. Gorham broke in.

"I know I am. Isn't that right?"

"No; it says, 'Commit the following to memory absolutely, but appear to
read it.'"

"Oh, sorrow! After spending all that time to learn this, I have to spend
some more time learning to remember that I have remembered. Isn't it the
awful stunt!"

"You're doing beautifully," Alice encouraged, laughing; "but it's a
shame to waste it all on an audience of two. Why don't you make a
vaudeville turn out of it?"

"There you go asking questions again," protested Allen, "which is
strictly forbidden by the rules." The boy wiped the beads of
perspiration from his forehead. "Honestly, you've gotten me so rattled
that I don't know whether what comes now is 'low tone' or 'pass the next
picture and come back to it.'"

"It is 'low tone,' Allen," Mrs. Gorham prompted.

"Thank you; now watch me make a noise like an innocent cooing dove. The
idea is just this, Miss Gorham: the _Home Travellers' Volumes_ not only
enable you to see and to enjoy the familiar sights and scenes which the
average tourist meets, but hundreds--nay, thousands--of curious and
wonderful customs and things which the average tourist never gets the
chance to see. The real illusion of travel is spread about you, the
thousands of photographic reproductions carry you along comfortably and
irresistibly, and the whole wide world is at your feet. It is absolutely
essential that you should know something beyond the narrow confines of
the city or town in which you live. Successful people acknowledge this