As though the very stars in their courses were
working for this young wizard with the
talking wire, the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia opened its doors exactly two
months after the telephone had learned to
talk. Here was a superb opportunity to
let the wide world know what had been
done, and fortunately Hubbard was one of the
Centennial Commissioners. By his influence a
small table was placed in the Department of
Education, in a narrow space between a stairway
and a wall, and on this table was deposited the
first of the telephones.

Bell had no intention of going to the
Centennial himself. He was too poor. Sanders
and Hubbard had never done more than pay his
room-rent and the expense of his experiments.
For his three or four years of inventing he had re-
ceived nothing as yet--nothing but his patent.
In order to live, he had been compelled to
reorganize his classes in "Visible Speech," and
to pick up the ravelled ends of his neglected
profession.

But one Friday afternoon, toward the end of
June, his sweetheart, Mabel Hubbard, was taking
the train for the Centennial; and he went to the
depot to say good-bye. Here Miss Hubbard
learned for the first time that Bell was not to