“Predicament,” suggested Mr. Potts.

“No, that’s not it.  What’s the name of that thing with two horns?  Unpleasant—­Er—­er—­Hang it! it’s gone clear out of my mind.”

“A cow,” hinted Miss Mooney.

“No, not a cow.”

“Maybe it’s a buffalo,” remarked Dr. Dox.

“No, no kind of an animal.  Something else with two horns.  Mighty queer
I can’t recall it.”

“Perhaps it’s a brass band,” observed Butterwick.

“Or a man who’s had a couple of drinks,” suggested Dr. Brown.

“Of course not.”

“You don’t mean a fire company?” asked Mrs. Banger.

“N—­no.  That’s the confounded queerest thing I ever heard of, that I can’t remember that word,” said Mr. Lamb, getting warm and beginning to feel miserable.

“Well, give us the rest of the story without it,” said Potts.

“That’s the mischief of it,” said Mr. Lamb.  “The whole joke turns on that infernal word.”

“Two horns did you say?” asked Dr. Dox.  “Maybe it is a catfish.”

“Or a snail,” remarked Judge Twiddler.

“N—­no; none of those.”

“Is it an elephant or a walrus?” asked Mrs. Dox.

“I guess I’ll have to give it up,” said Mr. Lamb, wiping the perspiration from his brow.

“Well, that’s the sickest old story I ever encountered,” remarked Butterwick to Potts.  Then everybody smiled, and Mr. Lamb, looking furtively at Julia, appeared to feel as if he would welcome death on the spot.

The mystery is yet unsolved; but it is believed that Peter was trying to build up the woman’s name, Emma, into a pun upon the word “dilemma.”  The secret, however, is buried in his bosom.

Peter professes to be an expert in legerdemain, and he came to Brown’s prepared to perform some of his best feats.  When the company assembled in the drawing-room after tea, he determined to redeem the fearful blunder that he had made in the dining-room.

Several of the magicians who perform in public do what they call “the gold-fish trick.”  The juggler stands upon the stage, throws a handkerchief over his extended arm and produces in succession three or four shallow glass dishes filled to the brim with water in which live gold-fish are swimming.  Of course the dishes are concealed somehow upon the person of the performer.

Peter had discovered how the trick was done, and he resolved to do it now.  So the folks all gathered in one end of the parlor, and in a few moments Lamb entered the door at the other end.  He said,

“Ladies and gentlemen, you will perceive that I have nothing about me except my ordinary clothing; and yet I shall produce presently two dishes filled with water and living fish.  Please watch me narrowly.”