But when they reach me, I can make the writing appear and stand out on these apparently unsullied pages as distinctly as though your words had been printed.

My letters to you will also, when you receive them, appear blank; but you will only have to press them for about ten minutes in this"-- and he handed me what looked like an ordinary blotting-book--"and they will be perfectly legible.

Cellini has these little writing implements; he uses them whenever the distances are too great for us to amuse ourselves with the sagacity of Leo--in fact the journeys of that faithful animal have principally been to keep him in training." "But," I said, as I took the pencil and book from his hand, "why do you not make these convenient writing materials public property?
They would be so useful." "Why should I build up a fortune for some needy stationer ?" he asked, with a half-smile.

"Besides, they are not new things.

They were known to the ancients, and many secret letters, laws, histories, and poems were written with instruments such as these.