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A ducal tea-party.
Among all my English experiences, none occupies so important a place as my forced meeting with the Duke of Cimicifugas.

(There can be no harm in my telling the incident, so long as I do not give the right names, which are very well known to fame.) The Duchess of Cimicifugas, who is charming, unaffected, and lovable, so report says, has among her chosen friends an untitled woman whom we will call Mrs.Apis Mellifica.

I met her only daughter, Hilda, in America, and we became quite intimate.

It seems that Mrs.Apis Mellifica, who has an income of 20,000 pounds a year, often exchanges presents with the duchess, and at this time she had brought with her from the Continent some rare old tapestries with which to adorn a new morning-room at Cimicifugas House.