are them men foolin’ round with, Mr. C.?’ said I.  ‘That’s hubby’s latest,’ replied Ned.  ‘I guess it’s the boss electro-dynamic fixin’ in the universe.  Full charge that battery with a pint of washing soda, an’ youll fetch up a current fit to ravage a cont’nent.  You shall have a try t’morro’ mornin’, Sal.  Youre better seasoned to it than most Britishers; but if it dont straighten your hair and lift the sparks outer your eyelashes—!’ ‘You bet it wont, Mr. C.,’ said I. That night (this is only what the paper says, mind) I stole out of bed; arranged the wires on each side of Ned so that if he stirred an inch he would make contact; charged the battery; and gently woke him, saying, ’Mr. C, love, dont stir for your life.  Them things that’s ticklin’ your whiskers is the conductors of that boss fixin’ o’ yourn.  If I was you, I’d lie still until the battery runs down.’  ‘Darn it all,’ said Ned, afraid to lift his lips for a shout, and coming out in cold water all over the forehead, ‘it wont run down for a week clear.’  ’That’ll answer me nicely,’ I replied.  ’Good-bye, Mr. C. Young Douglas from the corner grocery is waitin’ for me with a shay down the avenue.’  I cannot help laughing at these things, but they drive Sholto frantic.  He is always described in them as a young man from some shop or other.  He tries hard, out of delicacy, to keep the papers which contain them away from me; but I hear about them at breakfast, and buy them downstairs in the hall for myself.  Another grievance of Sholto’s is that I will not have meals privately.  But my dislike to being always alone with him is greater than my dread that my secret will leak out, and that some morning I shall see in the people’s faces that the Mrs. Forster who has so often been regaled with the latest account of the great scandal, is no other than the famous Mrs. Conolly.  That evil day will come, sooner or later; but I had rather face it in one of these wonderful hotels than in a boarding-house, which I might be asked to leave.  As to taking a house of our own, I shrink from any such permanent arrangement.  We are noticed a good deal.  Sholto is, of course, handsome and distinguished; and people take a fancy to me just as they used to long ago.  I was once proud of this; but now it is a burden to me.  For instance, there was a Mrs. Crawford staying here with her husband, a general, who has just built a house here.  She was so determined to know me that I found it hard to keep her off without offending her.  At last she got ill; and then I felt justified in nursing her.  Sholto was very sulky because I did so, and wanted to know what business it was of mine.  I did not trouble myself about his anger, and Mrs. Crawford was well in two days.  In fact, I think Sholto was right in saying that she had only overeaten herself.  After that I could avoid her no longer, and she was exceedingly kind to me.  She wanted to introduce me to all her New York friends, and begged me to leave the hotel and go to her new