The House of Martha — Frank R. Stockton / Frank Richard Stockton

Really and truly, all our hero wants is someone to listen to him

You see, it's quite simple. He had a wonderful time in Europe. He wants to tell folks back in the States all his adventures.

But our hero, in the nineteenth century, confronts a problem that has only gotten worse in the twenty-first.

,"" . . the ears of the present generation are not purveyors to the mind; they are merely agents of the tongue, who watch for breaks or weak places in the speech of others in order that their principal may rush in and hold the field . . . the conviction came to me that nowadays we listen only for an opportunity to speak.""

What to do, oh what to do?

Well -- why not "hire someone to listen to him "

Why not that pretty young lady from that Protestant charitable order

Oh dear Can aught but misadventures and daffy romance be in the offing?

Find out in this delightful treat from the pen of the author of "The Lady or the Tiger."