tened after you; this
morning I missed you by one hour at Zurich; but I have you now, and you
will listen to me."

"I warn you, my dear child, that I am at this moment a most detestable
auditor. We have done to-day one _hotel de ville_, one episcopal palace,
one cathedral, and some relics of St. Lucius. To speak plainly, I am
overpowered with sleep. Is there any great haste for what you have to
say to me?"

"Is there any great haste? Why, I arrive breathless from Hungary to
demand your daughter in marriage."

M. Moriaz threw up his arms; then, seating himself on the edge of his
bed, he piteously gasped:

"You could not wait until to-morrow? If a judge is desired to take a
favourable view of a case, he surely should not be disturbed in his
first sleep to consider it."

"My dear master, I am truly distressed to be compelled to be
disagreeable to you, but it is absolutely necessary that you should
listen to me. Two years ago, for the first time, I asked of you your
daughter's hand. After having consulted Antoinette--you will permit me
to call her Antoinette, will you not?--after having consulted her, you
told me that I was too young, that she would not listen seriously to my
proposal, and you gave me your permission to try again in two years. I
have employed these two mortal years in constructing a railroad and a
wire bridge in Hungary, and, believe me, I took infinite pains to forget
Antoinette. In vain! She is the romance of my youth, I never can have
another. On July 5, 1873, did you not tell me to return in two years? We
are now at July 5, 1875, and I return. Am I a punctual man?"

"As punctual as insupportable," rejoined M. Moriaz, casting a melancholy
look at his pillow. "Now, candidly, is it the thing to seek the presence
of the President of the Academy of Sciences between eleven o'clock and
midnight, to pour such silly stuff into his ear? You are wanting in
respect for the Institute. Besides, my dear boy, people change in two
years; you are a proof of it. You have developed from boyhood almost
into manhood, and you have done well to let your imperial grow; it gives
you quite a dashing military air--one would divine at first sight that
you were fresh from Hungary. But, while you have changed for the better,
are you sure that Antoinette has not changed for the worse? Are you sure
that she is still the Antoinette of your romance?"

"I beg your pardon; I saw her just now, without her seeing me. She was
promena