"I know," he said, "that the encore at last night's musicale affected you very powerfully. I could intuitively read from your perturbed countenance that you had become aware of the authorship of the same. Aurora, Aurora, I am Margaret MacDonald! I am your confidant at the Diana Seminary, whom you loved, and am now metamorphosed into a man by the miraculous powers of the vivisectionist and re-incarnator--Hyder Ben Raaba. I have come to claim you as my own. Aurora, I love you!" Aurora, bewildered at this remarkable and dramatic declaration and revelation, too spellbound to speak even a word, uttered a piercing shriek and fell into the open arms of Spencer Hamilton. At the sound of this cry of distress, which echoed throughout the palace, footsteps were heard approaching from every direction. Soldiers, foot-guards, servants, and the Viceroy Cunningham himself with his guests, rushed into the drawing-room and beheld this highly surprising tableau of romantic love. Explanations of very delicate and discreet nature were promptly given to the Viceroy by the two lovers, and consent to their union was presently forthcoming. POSTSCRIPT After a triumphal bridal tour through England and America, Aurora and Spencer Hamilton settled in the Central African Commonwealth, and by the strenuous qualities inherent in both they had become popular and prominent in civic affairs. Fifteen years later, in 1976, through sheer merit of a public life of usefulness and rectitude, Hamilton was gazetted as Viceroy to the African Commonwealth. The year 1976 was indeed an epoch-making period. It was the two hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and at the same time the semi-centennial of the happy Anglo-American Alliance. The double jubilee of these two nations, comprising nearly one-half of the world's population, was celebrated wherever the English tongue was spoken, with commensurate grandeur, enthusiasm and eclat, such as absolutely to eclipse all the Durbars, Volksfests and celebrations in the history of the world. And none the less, the composite but flourishing African Commonwealth, under the wise regime of Spencer Hamilton, was ablaze with prosperous pride in unison with England and America, for this grand and felicitous dual occasion. [THE END] NOTE [1] The slang in vogue half a century ago may be found now in standard dictionaries. Its use was considered in good form by the elite of that day. End of Project Gutenberg's An Anglo-American Alliance, by Gregory Casparian