made his wife first dream of a snowball, and then cry—
"What is the matter, Proteus?"
"A great matter, Julia. That fellow Grampus, whose book is cried up as a revelation, is all wrong about the Magicodumbras and the Zuzumotzis, and I have got hold of the right clue."
"Good gracious! does it matter so much? Don't drag the clothes, dear."
"It signifies this, Julia, that if I am right I shall set the world right; I shall regenerate history; I shall win the mind of Europe to a new view of social origins; I shall bruise the head of many superstitions."
"Oh no, dear, don't go too far into things. Lie down again. You have been dreaming. What are the Madicojumbras and Zuzitotzums? I never heard you talk of them before. What use can it be troubling yourself about such things?"
"That is the way, Julia—that is the way wives alienate their husbands, and make any hearth pleasanter to him than his own!"
"What do you mean, Proteus?"
"Why, if a woman will not try to under-
