ng Englishmen also declared themselves to
be abstainers, and wanted to go with me, while Herod Voltaire likewise
asked leave to abide by the rules he had ever followed in the countries
in which he had lived.

Of course there was some laughing demur among those who enjoyed their
after-dinner wine, but we followed the bent of our inclination, and
found our way to the drawing-room.

Evidently the ladies were not sorry to see us, for a look of pleasure
and surprise greeted us, and soon the conversation became general.
Presently, however, our attention was by degrees drawn to that part of
the room where Herod Voltaire sat, and I heard him speaking fluently and
smoothly on some subject he was discussing with a young lady.

"Yes, Miss Emery," he said, "I think European education is poor, is
one-sided. Take, for example, the ordinary English education, and what
does it amount to? Arithmetic, and sometimes a little mathematics,
reading, writing, French, sometimes German, and of course music and
dancing. Nearly all are educated in one groove, until there is in the
English mind an amount of sameness that becomes monotonous."

"You are speaking of the education of ladies, Mr. Voltaire?" said Miss
Emery.

"Yes, more particularly, although there is but little more variation
among the men. Take your University degrees--your Cambridge and Oxford
Master of Arts, for example; what a poor affair it is! I have been
looking over the subjects of examination, and what are they? A couple of
languages, the literature of two or three countries, mathematics, and
something else which I have forgotten now."

"You are scarcely correct, sir," said one of the young men who came in
with me. "I happen to have passed through Cambridge, and have taken the
degree you mention. I found it stiff enough."

"Not so stiff, when it can be taken at your age," replied Voltaire.
"But, admitting what you say, you are all cast in the same mould. You
study the same subjects, and thus what one of you knows, all know."

"And what may be your ideas concerning education?" said Miss Forrest.

Herod Voltaire turned and looked admiringly on her, and I saw that a
blush tinged both their cheeks.

"My ideas are such as would not find much favour in ordinary English
circles," he said smilingly. "But I should do away with much of the
nonsense of ordinary English education, and deal with the more occult
sciences."

"Pardon me, but I do not quite understand you."

"I