I went back to the steamship office and reported my failure to my friend the clerk. He drew a long whistle. “Not see you! What’s he here for? He must be drunk; that’s it, he’s drunk.” After a minute’s reflection he added: “We must see the Secretary of State; I am well acquainted with him, and he will get you out of this mess directly. If you will kindly wait till I have finished my correspondence, which will occupy me for about half an hour, I will take you to his office. You can amuse yourself with this copy of the _Times_,” handing it to me. When we reached the office of the Secretary of State we found the door locked. “Oh,” said he, “I had forgotten, this is a saint’s day, and the public offices are closed. We must go to his house.” We found the Secretary at home. I was introduced, and the Englishman told my case, of course in Portuguese. As he proceeded I saw the official brow darken. I woke up to the enormity of my offense. Little kingdom, big dignity. I had defied their laws and corrupted their official. The case looked serious. The Secretary, in fact, found it so serious that he did not feel like taking the sole responsibility of its decision, but sent out for two others of His Majesty’s advisers to consult with him. The assembling of this court caused a delay of half an hour, during which I had time to conjure up all sorts of visions, including an indefinite immurement in a castle and a diplomatic correspondence, while the deuce would be to pay with my business at home. Finally the officials sent for arrived. The instant they entered the room I was recognized by one of them. He had accompanied the King to the opening of the exposition the day before, which the pressure of public business or some game or other had prevented the Secretary of State from doing. In fact, he had headed the procession behind their Majesties and so had seen the graciousness of the King’s favor to me. He spoke a few words to the Secretary of State, when, presto, everything was changed. The court did not convene, but instead cordial handshaking with the man on whom the beams of royal favor had shone. I left my smiling friends with a passport or something just as good, added my twelve pounds sterling to the account of the ship, and had time before it sailed to eat a sumptuous dinner at the hotel. I was in the land of olives, and ate freely of the unaccustomed delicacy, in consequence of which I lost my dinner before the ship was well out of the Tagus and have never cared much for olives since. I was full of wrath against the United States minister, and determined to send a protest to the State Department as soon as I reached Manchester. But there I found something else to attend to and dropped the matter. I read, however, with satisfaction, a few months after, that the item of the salary of the minister to Portugal had been cut out of the appropriation bill by the House of Representatives. CHAPTER XI