go, and never said another word about the matter. But
when he came home in the following September, he brought a stranger
with him, whom he presented to us as our young master's tutor. We
called him Mr. Leclerc, though that was not his real name; he was a
nobleman in needy circumstances, who had been glad to find a decent
living--otherwise a harmless gentleman enough, who, to the very last
day of his life, never could learn one word of German, so that we, all
of us, soon picked up enough French to speak it fairly.--

"He had some little talents, which he used to teach the young count;
such as, dancing, fencing, and playing the flute; and then they read
some books together; but Master Ernest once told me with a laugh, that
before they had read three pages, Monsieur Leclerc would fall asleep,
and leave him to read, on to himself till the great clock struck, when
he would wake up with a start, and shake the powder from his sleeve,
which he had sprinkled over with it while he was nodding, and say; 'Eh!
bien, c'est ca!' and then he would fall asleep again. One thing he used
to be very busy with; and that was a knack he had, of modelling little
figures in pink wax; and he would paint them and varnish them so
prettily that they really looked like life--little marquises and
viscounts. He had a whole court of them, and would make them dance
menuets, while a sweet little queen was sitting on a throne, looking
on. Afterwards I heard from Count Ernest that he had taken into his
head that Marie Antoinette had been in love with him; he was as old as
that, although he used to go tripping about like any dancing master.

"But here I am, running on, sir, telling you all this nonsense, and you
wanting to go to sleep!--Yes, when once I begin, I can find no end; and
indeed there is not a chair in the castle but could tell ever so long a
story of its own.

"Just there, where you are sitting now, sir, I stood one morning, and
Master Ernest was sitting here on this very sofa; he had been at a ball
for the first time. It had been given at X by the small officials and
chief burghers. He was just sixteen--and quite grown up, although he
was slighter than when you knew him. 'Well Count Ernest,' I said; 'and
how did you like it? Were there any pretty girls? And whom did you
dance with? And who got your posy at the cotillion?'

"'Flor;' he said; he always called me Flor, and I was also the only
person, until he married, to whom he ever used the '