is a collection of match-boxes. He has already got five thousand
two hundred and fourteen different kinds. Some of them gave us
frightful trouble to find. For instance, we knew that at Naples
boxes were once made with the portraits of Mazzini and Garibaldi on
them; and that the police had seized the plates from which the
portraits were printed, and put the manufacturer in gaol. Well, by
dint of searching and inquiring for ever so long a while, we found
one of those boxes at last for sale at one hundred francs, instead
of two sous. It was not really too dear at that price; but we were
denounced for buying it. We were taken for conspirators. All our
baggage was searched; they could not find the box, because I had
hidden it so well; but they found my jewels, and carried them off.
They have them still. The incident made quite a sensation, and we
were going to get arrested. But the king was displeased about it,
and he ordered them to leave us alone. Up to that time, I used to
think it was very stupid to collect match-boxes; but when I found
that there were risks of losing liberty, and perhaps even life, by
doing it, I began to feel a taste for it. Now I am an absolute
fanatic on the subject. We are going to Sweden next summer to
complete our series.... Are we not, Dimitri?"

I felt--must I confess it?--a thorough sympathy with these intrepid
collectors. No doubt I would rather have found Monsieur and Madame
Trepof engaged in collecting antique marbles or painted vases in
Sicily. I should have like to have found them interested in the
ruins of Syracuse, or the poetical traditions of the Eryx. But at
all events, they were making some sort of a collection--they belonged
to the great confraternity--and I could not possibly make fun of them
without making fun of myself. Besides, Madame Trepof had spoken of
her collection with such an odd mingling of irony and enthusiasm that