"Come to the window, little one," said he, "and I will show you something
very beautiful. Do you know what this is?"

"A telescope!"

"No; a solar microscope. Now look down into this tube, and tell me what you
see. A piece of Persian carpet? No--a butterfly's wing magnified hundreds
and hundreds of times. And this which looks like an aigrette of jewels?
Will you believe that it is just the tiny plume which waves on the head of
every little gnat that buzzes round you on a Summer's evening?"

I uttered exclamation after exclamation of delight. Every fresh object
seemed more wonderful and beautiful than the last, and I felt as if I could
go on looking down that magic tube for ever. Meanwhile Monsieur Maurice,
whose good-nature was at least as inexhaustible as my curiosity, went on
changing the slides till we had gone through a whole boxfull.

By this time it was getting rapidly dusk, and I could see no longer.

"You will show me some more another day?" said I, giving up reluctantly.

"That I will, petite, I have at least a dozen more boxes full of slides."

"And--and you said I should see your sketches, Monsieur Maurice."

"All in good time, little Gretchen," he said, smiling. "All in good time.
See--those are the sketches, in yonder folio; that mahogany case under the
couch contains a collection of gems in glass and paste; those red books in
the bookcase are full of pictures. You shall see them all by degrees; but
only by degrees. For if I did not keep something back to tempt my little