The famous trick of making an omelet in a gentleman’s silk hat was heartily applauded. A successful magician mixes the eggs with a flourish and presently brings out, not an omelet but a garland of flowers. The flash of red fire which was supposed to cook the ingredients was a great surprise, and Tommy drew forth a handsome wreath of flowers with an impressive gesture. Traces of the egg, which should have disappeared, being transformed into flowers, were, however, visible, and Mr. Meadowcroft’s hat was considerably damaged. He declared that he didn’t care, as he disliked to wear it, and presented it to Tommy for future use. And Tommy’s last waking thought that night was that when summer should come and restore to him the opportunity to practise magic, he would devote all his leisure and all the eggs he could collect to perfecting this most alluring example of the conjurer’s art.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
Chapter numbers have been corrected to be consecutive numbers.