I shall
be delighted to study the history of Sweden, a language spoken by persons
I love better than any in the world, and the products of the soil of
Which Alete is the amiable Buffon."

"So be it," said M. de Vermondans, who, in spite of his eclecticism in
politics, had, with a strange mental contradiction, preserved in relation
to certain things very deeply rooted ideas, "So be it. In my time people
took up no such fancies--more than one _emigre_ passed ten years of his
life in a foreign country, and never learned to speak its language. The
young men of our times are not like those of to-day. The world, which
when I knew it was so gay and careless, which from its very recklessness
and its choleric daring was so interesting, now looks to me like a vast
school. Its atmosphere, formerly impregnated with perfumes, is now
saturated with the atmosphere of dusty tomes and damp newspapers. We meet
with no one but persons anxious either to teach or learn. What will
become of us if we give way to this pedantic pride? If we surrender to
this anxiety to analyze everything? If we go on so, to suit us, God will
be compelled to make a new world, to give occupation to the lofty fancies
of naturalists and physical philosophers, who seem to me to have weighed
and examined this thoroughly.

"Bah! bah! Mademoiselle the philosopher," said M. de Vermondans, as he
saw Ebba smile, "I am not ignorant that just now I talk very much like a
heretic. You have delighted in reading a multitude of books. I excuse
you, however, because you never boast of your acquisitions.

"You do not belong to those blue-stockings, and I have met many such,
who, as soon as you approach them, throw at your head the name of a poet
like a bomb-shell, and exhibit the wealth of their arsenal by firing a
philosophical cannon, or algebraic chain shot.

"May God almighty keep me from those women who forget in this manner the
natural graces of their sex. Let him protect me from those Laureates who
can see no natural phenomenon without crying out with stupid
satisfaction, 'I know the reason.'

"Imagine how delighted I should be, if when enjoying the delicious luxury
of sunset, some bachelor of arts should say--

"'Monsieur, will you suffer me to explain how various clouds assume the
colors which so vividly impress you, and with what rapidity light comes
to the eye?'

"For heaven's sake let me enjoy in peace all the gifts of Providence,
admire its works in the innoc