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Dinner was announced in the usual way--that is, with the sound of music played by the electric instrument devoted to that purpose, a perforuests Heliobas led the way into the dining-room with Mrs Everard; Colonel Everard folloith Zara on one arm and the eldest Miss Challoner on the other; Mr Challoner and myself came next; and Father Paul, with Mrs Challoner and her other daughter Effie, brought up the rear There was a universal ht as the dinner-table caement was indeed a triue round of crystal in imitation of a lake, and on this apparently floated a beautiful gondola steered by the figure of a gondolier, both exquisitely wrought in fine Venetian glass

The gondolier was piled high with a cargo of roses; but the wonder of it all was, that the whole design was lit up by electricity Electric sparkles, like drops of dew, shone on the leaves of the flowers; the gondola was lit from end to end with electric stars, which were reflected with pris pole glittered hat appeared to be drops of water tinged by the ht, but which was really an electric wire, and in his cap flashed an electric dialowed like a marvellous piece of curiously contrived jeork And this was not all Beside every guest at table a slender vase, shaped like a long- stemmed Nile lily, held roses and ferns, in which were hidden tiny electric stars, causing the blossoms to shine with a transparent and alraceful youths, clad in the Ar silently round the table till all present were seated, and then they co the viands, with swift and noiseless dexterity As soon as the soup was handed round, tongues were loosened, and the Challoners, who had been gazing at everything in als by warm expressions of unqualified admiration, in which Colonel and Mrs Everard were not slow to join

"I do say, and I will say, this beats all I've ever seen," said good Mrs Challoner, as she bent to exa vase of flowers near her plate

"And this is real electric light? And is it perfectly harly assured her of the safety of his table decorations "Electricity," he said, "though the most powerful of masters, is the most docile of slaves It is capable of the sive with equal certainty life or death; in fact, it is the key-note of creation"