_Vanitas vanitatum._ There is nothing new under the
sun.
I was placed about midway down the table. I had taken one rector's wife
down to dinner, and I had another at my left hand. They talked across
me, and their talk was about babies. It was dreadfully dull. At length
there came a pause. The entrees had just been removed, and the turkey
had come upon the scene. The conversation had all along been of the
languidest, but at this moment it happened to have stagnated altogether.
Jelf was carving the turkey. Mrs. Jelf looked as if she was trying to
think of something to say. Everybody else was silent. Moved by an
unlucky impulse, I thought I would relate my adventure.
"By the way, Jelf," I began, "I came down part of the way to-day with
a friend of yours."
"Indeed!" said the master of the feast, slicing scientifically into
the breast of the turkey. "With whom, pray?"
"With one who bade me tell you that he should, if possible, pay you
a visit before Christmas."
"I cannot think who that could be," said my friend, smiling.
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