wish you to owe her cure to me. It will be ger causes electric discharge, which in turn radical, on my academic honor!" produces insects by myriads-"

"No doubt; no doubt. tell me-"

But couldn't you

"What use would it be? To-morrow you shall know all. I can hardly keep awake."

We crossed the court-yard, and he opened the porte cochère on the Bergstrasse; we pressed each other's hands as we said good-evening, and I got back to my room, plunged in the most dismal reflections.

II.

"Insects!" cried she, starting up as if moved by a spring. "Insects! have you ever seen insects about me, you wretch? What, do you dare- Why, it's outrageous! Insects! Louise! Kate! Leave the house, Sir!" "But, aunt-"

"Go, Sir! Go! I disinherit you!" She screamed-stammered-her cap got pushed awry: it was a frightful job.

"Come, come!" cried I, getting up, "don't let's get vexed. Why, the deuce! aunt, I am I did not sleep a wink the whole night for not talking about the insects you think; I puzzling how Seltsam would manage to free am talking about myriapods, thysanura, coleopmy respectable aunt Wunderlich of her ascar-teræ, lepidopteræ, parasites—the whole countides. All next day I was tormented with the less crowd of little monsters which have taken same idea. I went hither and thither, ques-up their quarters with you to devour you!" tioning myself aloud, and people in the street At these words Aunt Wunderlich fell back turned round to watch me, so marked was my in her chair, arms dangling, head fallen foragitation. Passing before the shop of the drug- ward, and face so pale that the rouge on her gist Koniam, I stopped over an hour reading cheeks looked like blood spots. the endless labels of his vials and jars-asafoetida, arsenic, chlorine, potassium, Chiron's balm, Capuchin's remedy, Madame Stefen's remedy, Fioraventi's ditto, etc., etc.

"Heavens!" thought I, "what a clever fellow it must need to light on just the vial to cure us, without eliminating the central molecule! What courage it must require to deal with asafoetida, or Capuchin's remedy, or Fioraventi's, when a simple bit of bread or meat so often causes us an indigestion!"

That evening, supping tête-à-tête with my excellent aunt, I watched her with an eye of compassion.

"Alas!" thought I. "What would you say, poor Annah Wunderlich, if you knew that millions of ferocious microscopic creatures are bent on your ruin, while you are quietly taking your cup of tea ?"

I made but one bound from our house to Seltsam's hotel. As I rushed in I must have been pale as death.

"My dear fellow! There's a crisis-"

But I stopped in amazement. Seltsam had got together a numerous company. There were, first, the Conservator of the Archæological Museum, Daniel Bremer, with his big powdered wig and maroon-colored coat, full face, and froggy eyes; he had in his mouth a sort of mammoth bagpipe, whose use he seemed to be explaining to the others. Then the orchestral leader, Christian Hoffer, with an opera hat, crumpled up in a big chair, with his long legs stretched in distant perspective under the table; he was playing with his bony fingers on the keys of another queer instrument of tubular shape, and did not even look up at me when the door opened, so absorbed was he in his studies.

"Why do you look so at me, Theodore?" Kasper Marbach, anatomical lecturer at St. asked she, uneasily.

"Oh! nothing-nothing-"

"Yes, but I see that you don't think me looking well to-day. I look ill, don't I?"

"Why, yes, you are rather pale. I would wager that you have received a lot more music?"

"Why, certainly; yesterday I received the opera The Great Darius'-a sublime work! a-"

"I thought so. You have been all night drumming on the piano, striking attitudes, going into ecstasies, crying out, Ah! oh! perfect! wonderful! divine!'"

She turned crimson.

Catherine's Hospital, and Rebstock, Dean of the Faculty of Belles-Lettres, both in black coat and white cravat, were also there, one armed with an immense bronze waiter, the other girded with a sort of wild Indian drum of wood and buckskin.

These sober people, seated about the candelabra, with cheeks puffed out, stick raised, and meditative faces, made so droll an impression on me that I stopped short on the threshold, neck out and mouth open, like one in a dream. Seltsam coolly pushed me a chair, and the conservator went on with his explanations.

"This, gentlemen," said he, "is the famous busca-tibia of the Swiss. Its terrible sounds re

"What does this mean, Sir? Haven't I the verberate with prolonged majesty among the right-"

"Oh! I don't dispute it; but it's ridiculous. You are ruining your nervous system; you-"

"My nervous system! You are going cracked yourself; you don't know what you are talking about!"

"For Heaven's sake, be calm, aunt! An

echoes, and rise above the crash of the torrents. If Counselor Theodore will be so good as to take it, I don't doubt he will get a superb effect out of it;" and solemnly handing me the horn, and turning to Kasper Marbach,

"Your drum, Sir, is the most admirable thing of the kind which we have, theo of the Egyptians and Abyssinians. The jugglers use

stormy night, the police made no investigation. | long with having been instrumental in my dear Besides, the doctor called to testify to the death aunt's death, by blowing for a whole quarter of declared that Madame Annah died of an attack of apoplexy, playing the final duo of the "Great Darius;" they had found her seated in an armchair before her piano.

About six months after Dr. Seltsam published a work on the treatment of helminthæ (intestinal worms) by music, which had incredible success. Prince Hatto de Schlittenhof sent him the grand cross of the Black Vulture, and her Highness the reigning Duchess deigned to compliment him in person. They even talk of choosing him President of the Scientific Association. As for me, I shall reproach myself my life

an hour into that abominable busca-tibia, which may Heaven confound! True, I had no notion of harming her; on the contrary, I hoped to free her of her ascarides, and give her many more years of life; but she died of it, for all that, worthy woman, and I shall never get over it.

Heaven is my witness that the notion of smashing the central molecule never entered my head. Alas! I confess, to my shame, I should have laughed in any one's face who had come to me with the idea that you could kill even a fly with a tune.

LIFE IN BRITTANY.

I.-A WEEK AT NANTES.
ding each man did his allotted work. After-
passed out of the Mont Parnasse sta- ward it occurred to us that this first glimpse of

the evening, and as promptly, at six the next that province in all respects-material, intelmorning, we glided into Nantes, the ancient lectual, social, and religious; for we discovered capital of ducal Brittany. In eight hours and that in all things these Bretons were slow and a half we had traversed France from the me- patient; that they clung to old customs, applitropolis nearly to where the shores of Biscay ances, and thoughts, and hated the new civiliform the western boundary of the empire; zation as an impudent intruder; that here, of and, leaving in the evening the splendid centre all sections of France, the old religion held the of the latest civilization, we awoke amidst a least disputed sway; that education was backprimitive people, whose ideas and habits were ward, learning rare; that the stiff and cerein many things those of a by-gone age. For-monious social life which, otherwhere, revolutunately the early morning sun had awakened tions had subdued, here remained stagnant, us out of that troubled slumber which one and gave the key-note of communication besnatches as he can when traveling by rail;tween man and man. and during the last two hours of our journey The first view of Nantes, as we emerged we were able to enjoy to the fullest the singular landscape of the lower Loire.

from the station, and were for once pleasantly disappointed in not being forced to pass through a pandemonium of importunate cochers, was striking indeed. The station stands at one end of the town, upon a slight eminence; and from its porch our view to its further limits was almost uninterrupted. There lay, just awakening to its daily labor, the quaint and fine old city of another age, only just modernized enough to keep life in it.

Just below us the river wound in an abrupt turn, passing on through the midst of the town, and flowing rapidly-perhaps merrily, as if not suspecting its defilement by the crowded cityperhaps desperately, as if conscious that it must

The Loire, rising in the east of France, and holding an erratic course through its centre, becomes, near Nantes, a broad, deep, and swiftly flowing stream, bordered by meadowy banks, and holding in its bosom a multitude of fertile little islands. The railway runs along its northern bank, following closely the windings of the river. From the carriage window the eye stretches over the lovely islands which are almost crowded as they lie in the stream, so numerous are they, and beyond them were beautiful meadows, with their quaint villages and plenteous crops, until the sight is bounded by a range of lofty, and here and there craggy hills," flow on forever," defiled or not; and now, as whose summits are now thick with chestnut and it disappeared among the houses, dividing into oak forests, now crowned by an ancient Breton many separate streams, and forming as many château, and now bearing upon their sides a cu- crowded and thickly built islands, straight be rious, sleepy village, and on the very summit a fore us, its foundation below the level of the stately old church, in singular contrast with its street, stood the ancient castle-palace of the flock of lowly huts. In the Loire itself the sovereign dukes of Brittany, repaired here and busy world of raftsmen and fishermen, of little there for present garrison service, but wearing steamers and pleasure yachts, was already astir; the gloomy and mouldy look of extreme age; and we were amused to note, among the for- while just beyond, on the summit of a hill overmer, how primitive and old-fashioned was their looking the castle, stood the square-towered modus operandi; how the rafts were still navi- cathedral, "built," the guide-book told us, gated by long poles planted in the river's bot-"in the twelfth cen "ry," and now showing intom, and the sails were those of the Middle dications of the revo tionary desecration which Ages; and with what patient, snail-like plod- the venerable pile had suffered more than once.

A rickety old city it was, too, as we gazed on | poorer market-people-those who could not it from the station portico. Houses were lean-afford the tax for the luxury of a booth-were ing over against each other, or jutting threat- fain to content themselves with a rude table eningly over the narrow streets in a most lu- surmounted by a huge cotton umbrella, or even dicrously drunken fashion; some were sunk to spread a cloth upon the pavement, deposbelow the street, and seemed about to topple it their wares thereon, and deliberately squat into the waters of the Loire; others sought down on the ground beside it. It may not be each other's mutual support, and seemed to known to all of my readers that in Brittany have made an eternal contract on the principle each village or commune has its peculiar cosof "united we stand, but divided we fall." tume-no two having the same; and it is also Further down, where the Loire, passing the a matter of pride with the rustic folk that their populated islands, remingled its waters into distinctive dress shall be as unique and showy one wide sweeping stream, lay the shipping- as possible. The effect of this lively market small vessels mostly, engaged in the coasting scene, therefore, was vastly enhanced by the trade, and now moored to the fine long quays; great variety of color and form in the coifs and to build which the Nantais were forced to give shawls, the shoes and skirts of the womenup-and not without much conservative grum- these having come from some dozen or twenty bling about "these terrible times"-their favor- villages within a range of fifteen miles around ite shady promenade at the river's side. The Nantes. There was, indeed, little difference whole place looked so temptingly odd, so re- in the dress of the men-the empire of dress freshingly unique, that we declined the serv- being conceded, in that primitive district, as ices of the neat little round omnibus which all the world over, to woman; it was upon the stood ready to accommodate passengers, and persons of the bonnes that you observed more made up our minds to walk to the hotel. My especially the peculiarities of the costumes. companion fortunately knew the "ins and outs" The coifs, or head-caps, were the most noof the town, having been there before, and prom-ticeable feature of the women's attire; and, alised to lead me through its most interesting parts.

though neatness is by no means a Breton trait, the Breton women are not only very proud of It was Saturday; and, for one reason, we the starch cleanliness and fineness of their coifs, could not have hit upon a better day and hour but will often purchase one-so as to outdo to reach Nantes. It was the great weekly their neighbors-with the earnings of a month's market-day, when the peasants and bonnes from hard drudgery. And here, on the market all the surrounding neighborhood came in with square, was a perfect sea of these dazzling their various stock, and the fishermen reaped white coifs; some flat and broad at the back, the reward of their last few days' patient, mo- some long and tunnel-like, extending parallel notonous toil. It was just the time, my friend behind the head, some perpendicular and rising said, to see them coming in, and to visit the high above the forehead, some resembling the central "halle." We passed down the hill familiar cap of the Venetian doges, some more from the station, took our course along the simple, fitting close to the skull and adorned by street which passed just below the high castle long, fanciful strings reaching to the waist. walls, and which bordered the river, where the Their dresses had the peculiarity of extending small tradesmen had already begun to let the from the arms, without tapering in the least, light of morning in upon their wares, and to to the middle, being as large below as above; prepare for the bartering of the day. Finally and they all wore little shawls fastened in front, we came to a large, open, paved square, one and as various in shape, color, and decoration side of which was open toward the quays and as were the localities from which they came. the river, and the other three inclosed by tall, The men were mostly habited in short jackets, ancient buildings, so fantastically decorated with high, close vests, broad-brimmed hats, with façades and window-carvings that they leggings, and huge wooden shoes called sabots, must once have been the homes of the great, turning up at the end, and held to the foot by a but which were now occupied, in étages, by single strap. But these people themselves, merchants in the lower, and tradespeople and their physiognomies and manners, were quite working - people in the upper stories. The as curious as their costumes. Mostly rather square, called the "Place du Marché," pre- under medium height, they were solidly and sented a most animated, and even to the trav-compactly built, their features were hard, suncler wearied with sight-seeing, a most interesting scene; for the market was already open, and the farmers-of whom there were far more women and stout, hearty girls than of the sterner sex-were arriving, with their odd-look-norant and dogged sort. Their movements ing wagons of every shape, size, and beast of burden, filled to the top with fruits and vegetables. There were booths made of wood, some with canvas, others with wooden roofs, open on every side, and supplied with stalls fitted to receive the various produce; while the

burnt, and positive, and their whole appearance that of a stolid, sturdy, hard-plodding, obstinate, persevering peasantry. Energy was written upon every face, but energy of an ig

were deliberate, and, except that all over the square an incessant chattering was kept up, there seemed to be little in common between these rude Celts of the west and what are generally regarded as traits of the French character. Brittany was the last of those provinces,

which now compose the French empire, to | sentences which assailed our ears, and affordsubmit to Roman domination; the last to give ed us amusement. We left the market, after up that Druidical government and worship thoroughly enjoying the scene, and passed up which, even to our modern eyes, had some- the hilly Rue Crebillon-the principal thoroughthing about it imposing and grand in its sim- fare of Nantes, but as narrow and gloomy-lookplicity; and the last to receive that mixed ing as the Roman Corso-and, reaching the civilization which began to fructify in France top, found ourselves in the principal square of under the Merovingian kings. It will, prob- the city. It was an oldish, stately, mustyably, be the last to break away from its super-looking square, on the very crest of the hill. stitious allegiance to papal Rome. It is here, On one side stood the theatre, built in the Pantherefore, of all France, that you find the purest theon style, with a row of high columns supremains of the Celtic race; and that the hardy porting an ornate façade, and surmounted by and stubborn traits of the Celt, discoverable statues of nine very lugubrious Muses, each also in Wales and the Scottish highlands, are one of whom having paid the penalty for being still to be found in the ideas and manners of patiently graceful for centuries by having lost the people. These market-people exhibited a some limb or other part equally necessary to very marked contrast to the peasantry in other the symmetry of the human figure. Two sides parts of France. Sharp at a bargain, shrewd of the square were composed of high, ancient in judging physiognomy and character, quick buildings, uniform in construction and ornato seize an advantage, wonderfully clever in ment, the upper stories occupied by families the art of bartering, their movements were yet and the lower by cafés, restaurants, and billiard heavy, their faces dull, and their sense harder halls. On the fourth side stood the grim and and more positive than sparkling or versatile. gloomy-looking Hôtel de France - where we When the buying and selling began it was were to tarry-which has been for centuries amusing to witness the haggling and beating now the best hotel of Nantes, and has the same down, the fist-shaking and screaming, the rival- staid, stand-still look which both the general ry between neighboring vendors, the blunt hu- appearance of the old town and the people mor and quaint retorts, the general hubbub themselves present. and clamor which ensued. Although a primi- Entering the hotel court, we were almost tive people, as far as their backwardness in civ- awe-struck by the sphere of stately tranquillity, ilization and their seclusion from the line of trav- of venerable dullness, in which we found ourel and the centres of enterprise are concerned, selves. It was monastery-like in its stillness. they are, as I had good reason to know during We were ushered to a grand and gloomy apartmy visit, by no means primitively honest. To ment, which we might almost have imagined to that obscure corner of the continent has pene- be the well-preserved sleeping-chamber of some trated the familiar legend that the pockets of merchant of the seventeenth or eighteenth cenEnglishmen and Americans are exhaustless, tury. The furniture was ponderous and oldand their "gullibility" boundless; and a single fashioned; there were antique clocks and vases glance of their sharp Breton eye is enough to and mirrors and curtains and fauteuils; the bed convince them whether he who stands before was very low, but supplied with a lofty canopy them be or not an Anglo-Saxon victim, ready and obstinately immovable drapery; there was for the sacrifice. In the market-place it was the oaken floor of the olden time, with its neateasy to see that the buying and selling were ly disposed pieces and its dangerously slippery every where a contest, in which the buyer's part gloss; gas was wholly wanting-indeed, it is was to beat down as much as he could, and the vulgar at Nantes to use gas in the chambers seller's to maintain as high a price as he could; and saloons, it being considered as only fit to and the whole art of "sharp trading" seemed, light the kitchens and back entries; there were among this quaint folk, to have reached perfec- no water conveniences, such as one expects tion. Many were the shouts raised as we nowadays in first-class hotels, but only the oldpassed among the stalls-for they recognized fashioned bowl, basin, and ewer; and every our nationality at once-calling on us to look thing, indeed, seemed to have remained just as at the wares, and begging us to buy a "petit we found it, from a time beyond the memory sou" worth of this or that. Some followed us, of living men. holding in somewhat disagreeable proximity to our faces every species of fruit and vegetable, from carrots and cabbages to melons and pears, and, in tones that were meant to be seducing, pretended to offer them to us at a sacrifice. Others, who had-it is impossible to conjecture how-picked up a few English words and phrases, thought to win our patronage by regaling us with a mangled Breton version of our mother-tongue. "Goot day-ee, Sirr;" "Vill yoo a-erve zoom-zoomzing-zis morrnang ?" "I go vur to show you zoomzing farry goot!" -these are but feeble specimens of some o. he

Not caring to await the traditional Breton hour for breakfasting, we called the garçon to order something to assuage our hunger; but the garçon looked horrified when we gave the direction, seemed never to have heard so audacious a proposal before, and with great dignity assured us that the hour of breakfast was half past eleven, and that no breakfast could be forthcoming before. So we were fain to sit on the pretty balcony before the window, and watch what little life there was astir in the square until the not-to-be-anticipated hour should arrive. A few jauntily dressed gentle