ted, and though his words sounded florid in a
European ear, they were uttered in a voice that corresponded excellently
with this predominant chin.

"I am very pleased to see you, sir, very pleased indeed," he assured the
Count not once but several times, shaking him heartily by the hand and
eyeing him with a glance accustomed to foresee several days before his
fellows the probable fluctuations in the price of anything.

"I have taken the liberty of calling upon you in the capacity of Lord
Tulliwuddle's confidential friend," the Count began. "He is at present,
as you may perhaps have learned, visiting his ancestral possessions----"

"My dear sir, for some days we have been expecting his lordship and
yourself to honor us with a visit," Mr. Maddison interposed. "You need
not trouble to introduce yourself. The name of Count Bunker is already
familiar to us."

He bowed ceremoniously as he spoke, and the Count with no less
politeness laid his hand upon his heart and bowed also.

"I looked forward to the meeting with pleasure," he replied. "But it has
already exceeded my anticipations."

He would have still further elaborated these assurances, but with his
invariable tact he perceived a shrewd look in the millionaire's eye that
warned him he had to do with a man accustomed to flowery preliminaries
from the astutest manipulators of a deal.

"I am only sorry you should find our little cottage in such disorder,"
said Mr. Maddison. "The contractor for the conservatory undertook to
erect it in a week, and my only satisfaction is that he is now paying me
a forfeit of 500 dollars a day. As for the electricians in this country,
sir, they are not incompetent men, but they must be taught to hustle if
they are to work under American orders; and I don't quite see how they
are to find a job anyways else."

He turned to the window with a more satisfied air.

"Here, however, you will perceive a tolerably satisfactory piece of
work. I guess those trees will be ready pretty near as soon as the
capercailzies are ready for them."

Count Bunker opened his eyes.

"Do I understand that you are erecting a pine wood?"

"You do. That fir forest is my daughter's notion. She thought ordinary
plane-trees looked kind of unsuitable for our mountain home. The land
of Burns and of the ill-fated Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, should have
more appropriate foliage than that! Well, sir, it took four hundred men
just three days to remove the last tra