For a moment my brain spun round, and I had not at command a single one of my faculties. Recovering my self-possession, however, and with that, my good breeding, I advanced _en cavalier_, and gracefully sinking on one knee, I bowed my head and exclaimed, ‘Here do I prostrate myself, thou sweet Divinity, and kneel at the shrine of thy beauty.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Notes New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. Itemized changes from the original text: • p. 8: Supplied comma in phrase “found in every vocation, even the humbler ones” as suggested by end-of-line spacing. • p. 155: Supplied opening single quotation mark before phrase ‘it’s plain that you have not heard the crow of the Emperor of China’s chanticleer.’ • p. 223: Supplied closing single quotation mark after phrase ‘to believe in the possibility of his existence.’ • p. 225: Replaced period with question mark after phrase ‘with the poor, commonplace plodder Hautboy, an American of forty?’ • p. 238: Supplied comma in phrase ‘Sir, this is the very Paradise of Bachelors!’ as suggested by end-of-line spacing. • p. 365: Replaced ‘no-so-common’ with ‘not-so-common’ in phrase ‘thy not-so-common virtues.’ • p. 375: Replaced question mark with period after phrase ‘That is in compliment to our revolutionary ally.’