my new acquaintance's eminently prepossessing appearance, and when my hand dropped from his close grasp I felt as if I had known him all my life! And now face to face with him in the bright lamp-light, I remembered my actual surroundings,--the bare cold room, the lack of fire, the black soot that sprinkled the nearly carpetless floor,--my own shabby clothes and deplorable aspect, as compared with this regal-looking individual, who carried the visible evidence of wealth upon him in the superb Russian sables that lined and bordered his long overcoat which he now partially unfastened and threw open with a carelessly imperial air, the while he regarded me, smiling. "I know I have come at an awkward moment," he said--"I always do! It is my peculiar misfortune. Well-bred people never intrude where they are not wanted,--and in this particular I'm afraid my manners leave much to be desired. Try to forgive me if you can, for the sake of this,"--and he held out a letter addressed to me in my friend Carrington's familiar handwriting. "And permit me to sit down while you read my credentials." He took a chair and seated himself. I observed his handsome face and easy attitude with renewed admiration. "No credentials are necessary," I said with all the cordiality I now really felt--"I have already had a letter from Carrington in which he speaks of you in the highest and most grateful terms. But the fact is----well!--really, prince, you must excuse me if I seem confused or astonished ... I had expected to see quite an old man ..." And I broke off, somewhat embarrassed by the keen glance of the brilliant eyes that met mine so fixedly. "No one is old, my dear sir, nowadays!" he declared lightly--"even the grandmothers and grandfathers are friskier at fifty than they were at fifteen. One does not talk of age at all now in polite society,--it is ill-bred, even coarse. Indecent things are unmentionable--age has become an indecent thing. It is therefore avoided in conversation. You expected to see an old man you say? Well, you are not disappointed--I _am_ old. In fact you have no idea how very old I am!" I laughed at this piece of absurdity. "Why, you are younger than I,"--I said--"or if not, you look it." "Ah, my looks belie me!" he returned gaily--"I am like several of the most noted fashionable beauties,--much riper than I seem. But come, read the introductory missive I have brought you,--I shall not be satisfied till you do." Thus requested, and wishing to prove myself as courteous as I had hitherto been brusque, I at once opened my friend's note and read as follows,-- Dear Geoffrey.