My fifth--all woman! My whole (desire) was by repetition to prove that hope can conquer experience! _Chapter LXXXVIII_ L'ENVOI I am sorry for the poor American who deserts this sun-kissed California country for worn-out Europe. I am enjoying the breezes and ozone wafted from the great Pacific while poor deluded Eastern folk are festering in heat and humidity, varied only by an occasional murky thunderstorm. I face the sea and at my back are roses! On either side the blue-brown mountains hold converse with the sun and stars and dip their august heads in silent acquiescence to the others' whispers. At night massive Mars, always on duty, ever luminous, sternly bids them silence and the world to "go to" while he blinks a patronizing approval upon those "beneath" him. He has much of cynicism in his blinking as he contemplates this tiny carbon, Earth, for all his constant attendance. Mars is my companion, ever peering through my casement. Only our sex and distance prevent a silent flirtation! I am sometimes tempted to address him anyhow, but his majesty always awes me. Still, I find consolation communing with the waves that lull me to sleep as they embrace the sandy shore. The consolation is all too brief, the sleep intermittent, and I awake to fly back to the companionship of Mars. He is such a splendid officer! Always on guard--at sea and over the desert. He seldom shows himself resplendent in crowded cities. He dislikes company and turmoil. He is always alone, now and then racing with the moon and always leaving that gentleman to the left as he smilingly beckons the wary miner of the desert and the patient mariner of the sea to the right. Mars knows the road--a magnificent, reticent soldier--and I pray ere long my friend Tesla will make him better known. The drab morning is approaching o'er the mountain tops. A sea gull of corresponding color is on the sand, seeking what it may devour. The color of the bird and atmosphere are not to my fancy. I am going to beg a favor of sleep and awake when the colors are more radiant, when the sunbeams glisten and dance from sky to wave, when the white clouds meet and kiss the shadow that lets fall diamond drops of crystal that quench the thirst of the flowers and give them life. My home is by the sea. My lot is one hundred feet wide. Its height is interminable. It is a thousand fathoms deep! My front yard extends to the Antipodes. Am I not to be envied? I wonder? INDEX Ables, Eddy, 128 Academy of Music, 30 Adams, Edwin, 56, 119, 344 Adams House, 153 Adams, Maude, 111, 112, 121, 125, 169 "Alabama," 171 "Alabaster Staircase, The," 253 Albaugh, John, 85 Aldrich, Louis, 280 Allen, John, 149 Allen, Viola, 182, 290 "Altar of Friendship, The," 249 Amber, Mabel, 172 "Ambition," 174-176 "American Citizen, An," 232, 235, 241, 243-245, 307, 309 Anderson, Mary, 35 "André, Major," 250 "Antony, Mark," 30 Appleton, George, 236