Page:Nid and Nod (IA nidnod00barb).pdf/355

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Comfort must have had your initials wrong, too, then, for—"

"Ah, another misfortune! Attend, please. My name is Alphonse Guillaume Goupil. Yes. Very well. When I am in this country but a very short time I find that Alphonse is the name of all waiters in all hotels everywhere I go. I put aside Alphonse then. I am Guillaume Goupil. Then I become prosperous. I enter into business. Many do not know how to pronounce my first name, and that is not well. So I then spell it the American way. To-day I am William Goupil, American citizen!"

"That explains why the telegram didn't get to you," said Laurie. "Well, the whole thing's been a sort of—of—"

"Sort of a comedy of errors," suggested Ned.

Mr. Goupil seized on the phrase with enthusiasm. "Yes, yes, a comedy of errors! You'll say so! A comedy of errors of a certainty, beyond a matter of a doubt! But now, at last, it is finis. All is satisfactorily arranged. You shall hear. First, then, I offered my dear sister-in-law a nice home in Sioux City, but no, she must stay here where it has been her home and