unexpected treachery has pierced your heart.
Time will show you many others, and if you do not give yourself up to
useless misanthropy, the most foolish and idle of all maladies, you will
learn to resign yourself to chagrins you cannot avoid. In your time of
distress you will draw near to those who do not deceive your esteem. You
will, without hatred and anger, be able to look at those whom base
calculation or cowardice has led astray, and if you congratulate yourself
that you have not followed their example, you will be glad that heaven
has endowed you with more firmness and a loftier ambition."

The wisdom of these reasonings touched the heart of Ireneus, but could
not subdue it. The ardent young man continued to curse those whom he had
seen in the ranks of legitimacy, and who now had linked themselves with
the revolution. Often, to avoid the remonstrances of his uncle, or not to
annoy him by recrimination, he wandered alone across the desert plains,
calling all the deserters of the cause he loved by name, and sometimes he
even resolved, like a true knight-errant, to set out and demand an
account of their crime. When he returned from these solitary walks, his
uncle, thinking that all argument would at such times be useless, said
nothing. Ebba however looked at him with eager sympathy.

PART IV.

The marriage of Alete, for a while, however, diverted him from his moody
thoughts. The pastor and M. de Vermondans wished the marriage to be
contracted according to the custom of the country. Invitations had
already been given to many in the neighborhood, to the friends of the
pastor and of the two families. At the appointed time, a great number of
carriages had collected at the house of M. de Vermondans. Beds had been
made in every room. The house was full of guests, the stable of horses,
not to remain a few hours, for a wedding in Sweden lasts a whole week. M.
de Vermondans, assisted by Eric and Ireneus, did the honors of the house.
Ebba dressed her sister, and this alone was not a trifling task, for in
Sweden brides are richly decked, and the daughter of the humblest peasant
borrows or hires jewels to dress her like a lady.

The toilet, according to the old usage of the country, was at last
finished, under the inspection of the matrons of the village. Alete
entered the drawing-room in a dress of rose-colored silk, covered with
flounces, rosettes, a mass of ribbons, etc., and with a girdle, suspended
to which were m