By the time they came to Bell's table, through a litter of school-desks and blackboards, the hour was seven o'clock, and every man in the party was hot, tired, and hungry.

Several announced their intention of returning to their hotels.
One took up a telephone receiver, looked at it blankly, and put it down again.

He did not even place it to his ear.

Another judge made a slighting remark which raised a laugh at Bell's expense.

Then a most marvellous thing happened--such an incident as would make a chapter in "The Arabian Nights Entertainments." Accompanied by his wife, the Empress Theresa, and by a bevy of courtiers, the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro de Alcantara, walked into the room, advanced with both hands outstretched to the bewildered Bell, and exclaimed: "Professor Bell, I am delighted to see you again." The judges at once forgot the heat and the fatigue and the hunger.