His Excellency was frightened out of his wits when M. Loubet, desiring a private interview, sent for him.  He, not knowing European ways, thought his last hours had come, and, expecting speedy extermination, hid himself.

Milady, though half American, did not know exactly what Ascension day meant and asked her Chinese servant.  He replied, “Great Churchman gone topside to-day.”

Mr. Peck is the American commissioner to the Exposition, and Mr. Thomas Walsh is one of the members of the commission.  He gave a colossal dinner at the restaurant at d’Armenonville, and begged Mr. Martin, who knows every one in Paris, to select the guests.  It was only on the evening of the dinner he made the acquaintance of the one hundred people to whom he was host.

Nordica sang after dinner, and sang charmingly, as is her wont.

Mr. Walsh invited us to the American section.  We sat on the tarred roof of a restaurant, where lunch was served a l’Americaine.  My heart gladdened at the thought of hot griddle-cakes and corn fritters; but although everything was delicious, sitting on a tarred roof and being served by a loquacious black tyro was not appreciated by the foreign element.

A lady—­I won’t tell you her name, though you know it—­showed the greatest interest in the house Mr. Walsh is building in Washington, and desired greatly to advise him and help him choose furniture for it.  She thought Louis XVI. style very suitable for one salon, and proposed Renaissance style for the library, and Empire for the gallery, and so forth.  Mr. Walsh said, in his dry way, “You must really not bother so much, madame; plain Tommy Walsh is good enough for me.”  After which she lost interest in him and gave him up.

We were horrified to hear of King Humbert’s assassination at Monza.  He was such a good man and loved his country so devotedly.  To be struck down by one of his own people seems too cruel.  How dreadful for Queen Margherita!

Court mourning is ordered for three weeks.

PARIS, 1900.

Dear L.,—­Just a few lines from me to-day to answer your question, O merciless and adorable friend!  Dreyfus has been brought back from the dreadful island where he has been confined these last five years.  Five years of torture!  He was taken to Rennes to be tried.  His lawyer, Labori, has driven the judges almost out of their senses.

The sensational attacks of Zola and his sudden “J’accuse,” the suicide of Henry, the repeated demissions of the Ministers and Generals, la femme Voilee, the disappearance of Esterhazy (stamped as a first-class scamp), the attempt to get Labori’s papers by shooting him—­the ludicrous and tragic episodes have at last come to an end.  Dreyfus is declared innocent, and people are beginning to realize what has happened.