of yourself. What have you been doing? How have you been
passing your time?"

Maurice obeyed; Bertha placed herself on the other side of her aunt; the
count took a chair opposite.

"Behold a most attentive and appreciating audience!" cried Bertha. "Now,
Mr. Collegian and Traveller,--hero of the hour!--most noble
representative of the house of de Gramont! hold forth! Let us hear how
you have been occupying your valuable time."

"In the first place, I have been studying tolerably hard, little cousin.
It seems very improbable, does it not? The midnight oil has not yet
paled my cheeks to the sickly and interesting hue that belongs to a
student. Still the proof is that I have passed my examination
triumphantly. I will show you my prizes by and by, and they will speak
for themselves. Next, I have joined a debating society of young students
who are preparing to become lawyers. Our meetings have afforded me
infinite pleasure. At our last reunion, I undertook to plead a cause,
and achieved a wonderful success. I had no idea that language would flow
so readily from my lips. I was astonished at my own thoughts, and the
facility with which I formed them into words, and they say I made a
capital argument. I received the most enthusiastic congratulations, and
my associates, in pressing my hand, addressed me, not as the Viscount de
Gramont, but as the _able orator_. I really think that I could make an
orator, and that I have sufficient talent to become a lawyer."

"A lawyer!" exclaimed the countess with supreme disdain. "What could
introduce such a vulgar idea into your head? A lawyer! There is really
something startling, something positively appalling in the vagaries of
the rising generation! A lawyer! what an idea!"

"It is something more than an _idea_, my dear grandmother: it is a
project which I have formed, and which I cherish very seriously,"
replied Maurice.

"A project,--a project! I like projects. Let us hear your sublime
project, Mr. Advocate," cried Bertha.

"The project is simply to test the abilities which I am presumptuous
enough to believe I have discovered in myself, and to study for the bar.
My father wrote me that he intended to become a director in a railway
company, and descanted upon the advantage of embarking in the
enterprise. He also confided to me, for the first time, the real state
of our affairs,--in a word, the empty condition of our treasury. Why
should my father occupy himself with business matte