"A budding republican!" though Theos amusedly, as he pursued his course in the direction indicated. "That is how the 'liberty, equality, fraternity' system always begins--first among street-boys who think they ought to be gentlemen,--then among shopkeepers who persuade themselves that they deserve to be peers,--then comes a time of topsey-turveydom and fierce contention and by and by everything gets shaken together again in the form of a Republic, wherein the street-boys and shopkeepers are not a whit better off than they were under a monarchy--they become neither peers nor gentlemen, but stay exactly in their original places, with the disadvantage of finding their trade decidedly damaged by the change that has occurred in the national economy! Strange that the inhabitants of this world should make such a fuss about resisting tyranny and oppression, when each particular individual man, by custom and usage, tyrannizes over and oppresses his fellow-man to an extent that would be simply impossible to the fiercest kings!" Thus meditating a few steps more brought him to the entrance of Sah-luma's princely abode,--the gates stood wide open, and a pleasant murmur of laughter and soft singing floated toward him across the splendid court where the great fountains were tossing up to the bright sky their straight, glistening columns of snowy spray. He listened,--and his heart leaped with an intense relief and joy,--Sah-luma, the beloved Sah-luma, was evidently at home and as yet unharmed,--these mirthful sounds betokened that all was well. The vague trouble and depression that had weighed upon his soul for hours now vanished completely, and hastening along, he sprang lightly up the marble stairs, and into the rainbow-colored, spacious hall, where the first person he saw was Zabastes the Critic. "Ah, good Zabastes!" he cried gayly,--"Where is thy master Sah-luma? Has he returned in safety?"