'Our sea-lieutenant.'
'It delights me to hear he has turned University student,' she said; and in English: 'You have made friends of your books?'
She was dressed in blue velvet to the throat; the hair was brushed from the temples and bound in a simple knot. Her face and speech, fair and unconstrained, had neither shadow nor beam directed specially for me. I replied,
'At least I have been taught to despise idleness.'
'My Professor tells me it is strange for any of your countrymen to love books.'
'We have some good scholars, princess.'
'You have your Bentley and Porson. Oh! I know many of the world's men have grown in England. Who can deny that? What we mean is, your society is not penetrated with learning. But my Professor shall dispute with you. Now you are facile in our German you can defend yourself. He is a deep scholar, broad over tongues and dialects, European, Asiatic—a lion to me, poor little mouse! I am speaking of Herr Professor von Karsteg, lady aunt.'
'Speak intelligibly, and don't drum on my ear with that hybrid language,' rejoined the margravine.
'Hybrid! It is my Herr Professor's word. But English is the choice gathering of languages, and honey is hybrid, unless you condemn the bee to suck at a single flower.'
'Ha! you strain compliments like the poet Fretzel,' the margravine exclaimed. 'Luckily, they're not addressed to human creatures. You will find the villa dull, Herr Harry Richmond. For my part, every place is dull to me that your father does not enliven. We receive no company in the prince's absence, so we are utterly cut off from fools; we have simply none about us.'