ric, with more confidence, "had
arrived, I was unwilling to remain longer away, and my father was kind
enough not to wish to retain me."

As the Upsal student pronounced these few simple words, Ireneus observed
him, and discovered in his face such an expression of kindness, and in
his clear blue eyes such intelligence that he felt a real sympathy for
him.

"I thank you," said he, "for thinking of me before you knew me. I hope
that when we shall be acquainted you will grant me a portion of the love
you have conferred on my family. I am already disposed to love you as a
cousin."

"Ah!" cried Eric, springing up, and glancing at Ireneus with an
expression of radiant joy, "how happy I am at what you say! I was afraid.
I will confess, that I might find in you one of those careless men of the
world, as we hear most of the Parisians are. I see, however, you are a
worthy nephew of him I shall soon call uncle."

"Gentlemen," said Alete, who from the door had, with a pleasant smile on
her face, heard this amicable exchange of sentiments, "will you be
pleased to come to dinner?"

"Have they any caviar?" asked M. de Vermondans.

"Certainly, and as good as possible."

"Then we can give this Parisian a complete specimen of the gastronomical
refinements of our out-kitchen."

"You must know, Ireneus," said he, as he led his nephew to a little table
placed in the corner of the dining-room, "that we do not commerce our
meal as the rest of the world does. Our good ancestors certainly
discovered, that the walls of the stomach being contracted by cold,
needed to be refreshed by something spirituous, and from time to time
this estimable precaution has been perpetuated in the country. We will
therefore first take a glass of this brandy, and then a cake of this
caviar, a few anchovies, and a slice or two of ham, after which we will
really sit at the festal board, where the soup, to which you assign the
first rank, appears only as a secondary entree, after many culinary
preparations."

This was done to the great amusement of Ireneus, who really would have
taken for the dinner itself the prelude to it.

When they had sat down, Alete undertook to put him through a course of
national gastronomy.

"What do you think," asked she, "of the fish to which my father has just
helped you?"

"They are very good," replied Ireneus, "and resemble smelts."

"What do you mean by smelts? They are doubtless some tasteless product of
your warm rive