would be extinguished by his father at Madrid, therefore he remains in
Paris. Miss Griffith has found out also that Alphonse is in love with
a ballet-girl at the Opera. How is it possible to fall in love with
legs and pirouettes? We have noticed that my brother comes to the
theatre only when Tullia dances there; he applauds the steps of this
creature, and then goes out. Two ballet-girls in a family are, I
fancy, more destructive than the plague. My second brother is with his
regiment, and I have not yet seen him. Thus it comes about that I have
to act as the Antigone of His Majesty's ambassador. Perhaps I may get
married in Spain, and perhaps my father's idea is a marriage there
without dowry, after the pattern of yours with this broken-down guard
of honor. My father asked if I would go with him, and offered me the
use of his Spanish master.

"Spain, the country for castles in the air!" I cried. "Perhaps you
hope that it may mean marriages for me!"

For sole reply he honored me with a meaning look. For some days he has
amused himself with teasing me at lunch; he watches me, and I
dissemble. In this way I have played with him cruelly as father and
ambassador _in petto_. Hadn't he taken me for a fool? He asked me what
I thought of this and that young man, and of some girls whom I had met
in several houses. I replied with quite inane remarks on the color of
their hair, their faces, and the difference in their figures. My
father seemed disappointed at my crassness, and inwardly blamed
himself for having asked me.

"Still, father," I added, "don't suppose I am saying what I really
think: mother made me afraid the other day that I had spoken more
frankly than I ought of my impressions."