At eight o’clock Alphonso knocked at the door of Mr. Ingalls’ room. He was got up with the utmost magnificence which he could command. With his dress-coat, white tie, and imitation diamond pin, he made an imposing appearance.

“I am glad to see you, Mr. Jones,” said Mr. Ingalls. “Count Ernest de Montmorency, permit me to introduce my friend, Mr. Alphonso Jones.”

The count, a little man, with a waxed mustache of extraordinary size, a long nose, and pale, watery eyes, rose, and bowed profoundly.

“I am most happy, Monsieur Jones, to have ze honor of making your acquaintance,” he said.

“My lord count, the honor is on my side,” returned Alphonso, with an elaborate bow, which he had learned in dancing-school.

208“Mr. Jones,” said Ingalls, “will you take the chair next to the count? Our distinguished friend is desirous of making some inquiries about fashionable society in America.”

“I shall be most happy,” replied Alphonso, immensely flattered, “to give the noble count any information in my power.”

“I understand from Monsieur Ingalls you do go much in society,” said the count.

“A little, your lordship,” said Mr. Jones, modestly. “I am intimate in some of our leading families.”

“You have some fine watering-places, n’est ce pas?”

“Yes, my lord count,—Newport, Saratoga, and Long Branch are all fashionable.”

“You have visit zem all?”

“Oh, yes,” answered Alphonso, who had once stopped over night at Saratoga, and made a day’s excursion to Long Branch. “I meet so many of my fashionable friends there, that it is very pleasant for me.”

“Sans doute, and which do you prefare?”

“Saratoga, my lord count. It is the most high-toned, 209in my opinion. My friends, the Vernons, of Madison avenue, always go there.”

“I once did know a Marquis de Vernon in my own country.”

“A relation of my friends,” said Alphonso, confidently. “How long has your lordship been in America?”

“Tree week, zat is all.”

“Have you been in New York all the time?”

“No, Monsieur Jones, I did visit Boston and Philadelphia, but New York is one fine city, ze best of all; it reminds me of Paris.”

“Paris is a very beautiful city, I have always heard, my lord count.”

“Oh, très magnifique. Zere is no city like it. Have you visited Paris, Monsieur Alphonse?”

He is getting intimate, thought Mr. Jones, elated, or he would not call me by my first name.

“No, your lordship, I have not had that great pleasure.”

“When you come,” said the count, affably, “you 210must come to my chateau in Normandy, and stay one month.”

This was beyond Alphonso’s most sanguine hopes. To be invited to visit a foreign nobleman at his chateau was an unloo............