"I will say nothing," I replied, laughing. "I never give advice on matters matrimonial."

The

We had found our horses. Count leaped lightly into the saddle, and letting his reins fall on the horse's neck, cried out, "The horse shall settle the point for us."

The horse did not hesitate where to go; but turned at once into a small path, which after some turns led to a regular road, and that was the road to Dowghielly. Half an hour later we were at the castle.

At the noise made by our horses' feet, a pretty fair-haired head showed at a window between two curtains. I recognized the perfidious translator of Mickiewicz

The curtains closed. While walking up the steps I heard the Count muttering between his teeth, "It was not for my sake she was displaying her dress."

He introduced me to Madame Dowghiello, aunt of the panna Jwinska, who received me most cordially, and talked of my last articles in the Koenigsberg "Scientific and Literary Journal."

"The Professor has come to complain to you of Mlle. Julienne's conduct. She has played him a very bad trick."

"She is a child, Professor, and you must forgive her, for her heart is right, and she has many good qualities. She is a good musician, paints flowers divinely, speaks French, German, and Italian equally well, and embroiders."

"And makes Jmond verses!" added the Count, laughing.

"Impossible! she could not!" cried Mme. Dowghiello, to whom

her niece's escapade had to be explained.

IV.

DINNER was a very lively affair. One of the party, General Véliaminof, gave us some most interesting information as to the languages spoken in the Caucasus. I myself was also obliged to speak of my travels, for the Count, having congratulated me on my manner of riding, I had to explain how, when employed by the Biblical Society on a work upon the language of the Charrnas, I had spent three and a half years in Uruguay, almost all my time on horseback, living in the Pampas among the Indians. In this way it came about that I mentioned that, having once been three days wandering without food or drink over those boundless plains, I was reduced to do as the guachos who accompanied me; that is to say, to bleed my horse and drink his blood.

All the ladies screamed with horror. The General remarked that the Kalmouks resorted to the same practice in similar extremities, and the Count asked me how I had liked the beverage.

"Morally, it filled my mind with disgust and horror, but physically it answered admirably, and to it I owe the honour of dining here to-day."

The Count asked me where horses ought to be bled if one wanted to drink their blood.

"For Heaven's sake, don't tell him, dear Professor!" exclaimed Mlle. Jwinska, with a look of comical terror. "He is just the man to kill every horse in his stable, and eat us up too when they were all gone."

At this sally all the ladies rose and left the table to prepare tea and coffee while we smoked.

V.

WE went to bed late. In many grand Lithuanian houses, one sees splendid plate, beautiful furniture, valuable Persian carpets, and yet there are not, as in our dear Germany, good feather beds for weary guests. Rich or poor, noble or peasant, a Slave can sleep well on a hard board. The castle of Dowghielly was no exception to the general rule, and in the room into which the Count and myself were shown, there was nothing but two sofas covered with morocco leather. This mattered little to me, for in my travels I had often to sleep on the cold ground, and I laughed at the Count's remarks upon the want of civilization of his countrymen. A servant came and pulled off our boots and gave us dressing-gowns and slippers. The Count, after having taken off his coat, walked about for a while in silence, and then, stopping before the sofa on which I was already stretched, asked, "What do you think of Joulka ?"

you

"I think she is charming." Yes, but such a flirt. Do think she really liked that little light-haired captain ?"

"The general's aide-de-camp? How do I know?"

"He is a donkey, so women ought to like him."

"I deny that deduction, Count. May I tell you the truth? Mlle. Jwinska thinks much more of pleasing Count Szémioth, than of all the aides-de-camp of the army put together."

He coloured, but made no answer to this remark. It seemed to me that my words had pleased him. He walked about again for a while without speaking, and at last looked at his watch. "On my word," he exclaimed, "we had better go to sleep. It is very late."

He stretched himself on his sofa,

ing, and his half-open lips were were shut, all his body was quivermurmuring some almost inarticulate words:

"Very fresh! . . . very white!

...

.. the Professor does not know what he is talking about . . . the horse is nothing . . . what a delicate morsel! . . ." Then he began to bite savagely at the cushion on which his head rested, and at the same time he gave a kind of roar that woke him up.

I remained perfectly still on my sofa and pretended to sleep, but I watched him all the time. He sat up, rubbed his, eyes, sighed sadly, and remained for nearly an hour in the same position, absorbed apparently in thought. I felt very

resolution never again to sleep in uncomfortable, and made a silent the same room with the Count. At last, however, weariness overcame anxiety; and when morning stole into our room, we were both of us sound asleep.

VI.

AFTER breakfast we returned to Medintiltas, and there, having found

Doctor Froeber alone, I told him that I thought the Count was ill; that he had frightful dreams; that in all probability he was a somnambulist, and might be dangerous in that state.

"I have noticed all that," replied the Doctor. "In spite of his athletic frame, he is as nervous as a pretty woman. Perhaps he

inherits that from his mother. By the way, she was diabolically troublesome this morning. . . . I don't believe in your stories about women's frights, and their effect upon unborn children; but what I do believe is, that the Countess is mad, and that madness is hereditary in the blood."

66

But," said I, "the Count is quite sane. His mind is right. He is cultivated-much more, I confess, than I could have believed. He likes reading-"

66

Quite so! quite so! my dear sir; but he is queer all the same. He often shuts himself up for days. He wanders about at night. He reads dreadful books German metaphysics, philological works, and Heaven knows what. He got another box of them from Leipsig yesterday even."

I remained another ten days at the castle, and paid a second visit to Dowghielly, but he did not sleep there. As on the first occasion, Mlle. Jwinska showed herself frolicsome and spoilt; but she exercised a kind of fascination over the Count, and I felt no doubt but that he was in love with her. He knew she was a flirt, and frivolous, caring only for amusement. Often I could see he was inwardly distressed to feel she had so little sense, and yet when she paid him some pretty little attention, he forgot everything; his face lighted up and reflected nothing but pleasure. He wanted to carry me off to Dowghielly the last evening before my departure, possibly because I

talked to the aunt while he walked about the garden with the niece; but I had a great deal to do, and excused myself in spite of all his efforts to make me go with him. He came back to dinner, though he told us not to wait, and sat down to table though he would not eat. All the time the meal lasted he was gloomy and morose, and every now and then he frowned, and his eyes shot forth a sinister expression. At last, when the Doctor went off to the Countess, the Count followed me to my room, and told me all that was on his mind.

"I am heartily sorry of having left you to go and see that little fool, who laughs at me, and only cares for new faces. Happily, however, everything is over between us. I am utterly disgusted with her, and will never see her again."

He walked up and down for a while, according to his usual habit, and then went on:

"You thought, perhaps, that I was in love with her? That's what that fool of a Doctor thinks. No, I never loved her. Her merry face amused me. I liked to look at her white skin-that is the best thing about her, her skin. She has certainly not an atom of brains. I never looked upon her as anything but a pretty doll, nice to look at when one was tired. and had not a new book at hand. No doubt she is beautiful. Her skin is wonderful! The blood that flows beneath it, Professor, ought to be better than that of a horse. What do you think?"

And he burst out laughing, but the laughter was not good to hear.

I bid him good-bye in order next morning to continue my researches in the north of the palatinate.

VII.

THESE lasted nearly two months, and I can safely say that there was

having been able to keep my old quarters for me. My new room, however, was very nice; it looked out on the park, and was underneath the Count's apartment. I dressed in all haste for the ceremony, and put on my clerical garb, but neither the Count nor his bride appeared. The Count had gone to Dowghielly to fetch her, and they ought to have arrived long before, but a bride's toilette is no small matter.

It was past twelve o'clock when a salvo of firearms announced the bride's arrival, and soon afterwards a grand carriage entered the avenue drawn by four splendid horses. By the foam that covered their breasts it was easy to see that the delay was none of theirs. There was no one in the carriage but the bride, Mme. Dowghiello, and the Count. He got out first and gave his arm to Mme. Dowghiello. Mlle. Jwinska, with a movement full of grace and girlish coquetry, seemed as if she would hide behind her shawl to escape from the curious stare that met her on every side. Nevertheless, she stood up straight in the carriage, and was going to take the Count's hand, when the wheelers, frightened perhaps at the shower of flowers which the peasants sent in the bride's direction, or possibly because they also felt the strange terror with which Count Szémioth inspired animals, reared and snorted. One of the carriage wheels struck the edge of the stone steps, and for a moment an accident seemed imminent.

cry,

Mlle. Jwinska gave a slight but very soon every one was reassured. The Count, seizing her in his arms, carried her to the top of the steps, just as easily as if she had been a feather. We all applauded his skill and chivalrous. gallantry. The peasants hurrahed with terrible vigour, and the bride, red as fire, laughed and trembled at the same time. The Count was in no hurry to lay down his burden,

and seemed to exult as he showed her to the surrounding crowd.

All of a sudden a tall woman, pale, thin, her clothes in disorder, her hair dishevelled, and all her features contracted by terror, appeared at the top of the steps without any one knowing where she came from.

"The bear!" she screamed in her thin piercing voice, "the bear! Guns-bring guns-he is carrying off a woman! Shoot him! Shoot him!"

It was the Countess. The arrival of the bride had brought every one on to the steps, or into the yard, or to the windows. Even the women who watched the poor mad woman forgot their charge. She escaped, and, without being seen by any one, had made her way into our midst. It was a very painful scene. Notwithstanding her cries and her resistance, she had to be carried off. Many of the guests knew nothing of her illness, and everything had to be explained to them. There was a great deal of low whispering, and every face was saddened. A bad omen, said all the people who were superstitious, and these are a large body in Lithuania.

Nevertheless, Mlle. Jwinska asked five minutes to arrange her dress and put on her bridal veil, an operation that took her a good hour to perform. This was more time even than was needed for informing the people, who knew nothing of the Countess's illness, of its nature and

cause.

At last the bride appeared, beautifully adorned, and glittering with diamonds. Her aunt introduced her to all the guests; and when the time came for making a move to the chapel, to my amazement, Mme. Dowghiello, before the whole company, gave her niece a box on the ear, and this smartly enough to make people who did not see it turn round their heads. The blow,