"What do you think," said one of the party, "if once a week we
alternately met at each other's rooms, and held disputations? No
Danish word must be spoken. This might be an excellent scheme."

"I agree to that!" cried several.

"Regular laws must be drawn up."

"Yes, and we must have our best Latin scholar, the Jutlander, Otto
Thostrup, with us! He wrote his themes in hexameters."

"He is not invited here this evening," remarked the neighbor, the
young Baron Wilhelm of Funen, the only nobleman in the company.

"Otto Thostrup!" answered the host. "Yes, truly he's a clever
fellow, but he seems to me so haughty. There is something about him
that does not please me at all. We are still no dunces, although
he did receive nine prae caeteris!"

"Yet it was very provoking," cried another, "that he received the
only Non in mathematics. Otherwise he would have been called in.
Now he will only have to vex himself about his many brilliant
characters."

"Yes, and he is well versed in mathematics!" added Wilhelm "There
was something incorrect in the writing; the inspector was to blame
for that, but how I know not. Thostrup is terribly vehement, and
can set all respect at defiance; he became angry, and went out.
There was only a piece of unwritten paper presented from him,