usages--not even whether or not the lady's consent was necessary to a
compact of the kind. I therefore made a more modest request. "There is
one thing I greatly desire," I said. "I am very anxious to be able to
read in your books, and shall consider myself more than compensated if
you will permit Yoletta to teach me."

"She shall teach you in any case, my son," he returned. "That, and much
more, is already owning to you."

"There is nothing else I desire," said I. "Pray keep the pen and make me
happy."

And thus ended a disagreeable matter.

The cloud having blown over, we all repaired to the supper-room, and
nothing could exceed our happiness as we sat at meat--or vegetables. Not
feeling so ravenously hungry as on the previous evening, and, moreover,
seeing them all in so lively a mood, I did not hesitate to join in the
conversation: nor did I succeed so very badly, considering the
strangeness of it all; for like the bee that has been much hindered at
his flowery work by geometric webs, I began to acquire some skill in
pushing my way gracefully through the tangling meshes of thought and
phrases that were new to me.

The afternoon's experiences had certainly been remarkable--a strange
mixture of pain and pleasure, not blending into homogeneous gray, but
resembling rather a bright embroidery on a dark, somber ground; and of
these surprising contrasts I was destined to have more that same
evening.