refrain which has but one significance for me.
I took the bird and kept it. I have it now with me. It has been
examined hundreds of times; for a long time I was anxious to know
the secret of its changed color, but I have never deciphered it. It
is healthy, in good condition, sweet-tempered and very fond of me.
It does not talk much, but its talk is innocent and rational. No
morbid symptoms have ever appeared in it since I took it from the
nunnery in Montreal. Its plumage is soft and thick, and perfectly,
entirely gray. My own impression is that it was naturally a gray
parrot and had at that time of my sojourn in New York, either been
dyed or painted that peculiar pea-green which so distinguished it
then. I wrote to De Kock before leaving for England and told him
something of the story. I have seen the last of Madame; in all
probability I shall see the last of the Pea-Green Parrot, and I
cannot help wondering when I enter a cafe or ride on an omnibus
whether I shall ever run across Giuseppe Martinetti in the flesh, or
whether the last of him was seen in truth, five years ago.
The Bishop of Saskabasquia.
I have not a story, properly speaking, to tell about him. He, my
Bishop, is quite unconscious that I am writing about him, and would,
I daresay, be quite astonished if he knew that I could find anything
that relates to him to write about. But I will tell you just how I
came to do so. I went to see the "Private Secretary" some months ago.
I had never been a great admirer of clergymen as a sex (vide
Frenchman's classification), and I thoroughly enjoyed the capital
performance of so clever a play. Here, thought I, is a genuine and
perfectly fair, though doubtless exaggerated, portrait of the young
and helpless curate. I quite lived on that play. I used to go about,
like many another delighted playgoer, I expect, quoting the better
bits in it, and they are many, and often laughing to himself at its
admirable caricature. However, to go on with what I am going to tell
you, about two months after I had seen the "Private Secretary," I
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