e unpardonable for me to
acquiesce."

"Then what do you intend to do?"

"What do I intend to do?" Morhange leaned back in the armchair and
smilingly launched a puff of smoke toward the ceiling.

"Nothing," he said. "And that is all that is necessary. Man has this
superiority over woman. He is so constructed that he can refuse
advances."

Then he added with an ironical smile:

"A man cannot be forced to accept unless he wishes to."

I nodded.

"I tried the most subtle reasoning on Antinea," he continued. "It was
breath wasted. 'But,' I said at the end of my arguments, 'why not Le
Mesge?' She began to laugh. 'Why not the Reverend Spardek?' she
replied. 'Le Mesge and Spardek are savants whom I respect. But

_Maudit soit a jamais reveur inutile,
Qui voulut, le premier, dans sa stupidite,
S'eprenant d'un probleme insoluble et sterile,
Aux choses de l'amour meler l'honnetete._

"'Besides,' she added with that really very charming smile of hers,
'probably you have not looked carefully at either of them.' There
followed several compliments on my figure, to which I found nothing to
reply, so completely had she disarmed me by those four lines from
Baudelaire.

"She condescended to explain further: 'Le Mesge is a learned gentleman
whom I find useful. He knows Spanish and Italian, keeps my papers in
order, and is busy working out my genealogy. The Reverend Spardek
knows English and German. Count Bielowsky is thoroughly conversant
with the Slavic languages. Besides, I love him like a father. He knew
me as a child when I had not dreamed such stupid things as you know
of me. They are indispensable to me in my relations with visitors of
different races, although I am beginning to get along well enough in
the languages which I need.... But I am talking a great deal, and this
is the first time that I have ever explained my conduct. Your friend
is not so curious.' With that, she dismissed me. A strange woman
indeed. I think there is a bit of Renan in her but she is cleverer
than that master of sensualism."

"Gentlemen," said Le Mesge, suddenly entering the room, "why are you
so late? They are waiting dinner for you."

The little Professor was in a particularly good humor that evening. He
wore a new violet rosette.

"Well?" he said, in a mocking tone, "you have seen her?"

Neither Morhange nor I replied.

The Reverend Spardek and the Hetmari of Jitomir already had begun
eating when we arrived. The sett