“They are the great money-getters of the world.  They rose from dealers in old clothes and peddlers of hats to merchants, to bankers, to princes.  They were as merciless to the Christian as the Christian had been to them.  They said, with Shylock:  ’The villainy you teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.’  The ‘wheel of fortune has come full circle;’ and the descendants of the old peddlers now own and inhabit the palaces where their ancestors once begged at the back doors for secondhand clothes; while the posterity of the former lords have been, in many cases, forced down into the swarming misery of the lower classes.  This is a sad world, and to contemplate it is enough to make a man a philosopher; but he will scarcely know whether to belong to the laughing or the weeping school—­whether to follow the example of Democritus or Heraclitus.”

“And may I ask,” I said, “what is the nature of your society?”

“I cannot tell you more at this time,” he replied, “than that it is a political secret society having a membership of millions, and extending all over the world.  Its purposes are the good of mankind.  Some day, I hope, you may learn more about it.  Come,” he added, “let me show you my house, and introduce you to my mother.”

Touching a secret spring in the wall, a hidden door flew open, and we entered a small room.  I thought I had gotten into the dressing-room of a theater.  Around the walls hung a multitude of costumes, male and female, of different sizes, and suited for all conditions of life.  On the table were a collection of bottles, holding what I learned were hair dyes of different colors; and there was also an assortment of wigs, beards and mustaches of all hues.  I thought I recognized among the former the coarse white hair of the quondam beggar.  I pointed it out to him.

“Yes,” he said, with a laugh, “I will not be able to wear that for some time to come.”

Upon another table there was a formidable array of daggers, pistols and guns; and some singular-looking iron and copper things, which he told me were cartridges of dynamite and other deadly explosives.

I realized that my companion was a conspirator.  But of what kind?  I could not believe evil of him.  There was a manliness and kindliness in his face which forbade such a thought; although the square chin and projecting jaws and firm-set mouth indicated a nature that could be most dangerous; and I noticed sometimes a restless, wild look in his eyes.

I followed him into another room, where he introduced me to a sweet-faced old lady, with the same broad brow and determined, but gentle, mouth which so distinguished her son.  It was evident that there was great love between them, although her face wore a troubled and anxious look, at times, as she regarded him.  It seemed to me that she knew he was engaged in dangerous enterprises.

She advanced to me with a smile and grasped both my hands with her own, as she said: