be sure I am a bachelor, and know nothing of such matters; but
it strikes me I should like to be married now and then, and go eat my
wedding-dinners at Boitsfort! And now once more let me come back to my
narrative--for leaving which I should ask your pardon, were it not that
the digression is the best part of the whole, and I should never forgive
myself if I had not told you not to stop at Brussels without dining at
Boitsfort.

When we reached Boitsfort, a waiter conducted us at once to a little
table in the garden where the strawberries and the iced champagne
were in waiting. Here and there, at some distance, were parties of the
Brussels bourgeoisie enjoying themselves at their coffee, or with ice;
while a large salon that occupied one wing of the building was given up
to some English travellers, whose loud speech and boisterous merriment
bespoke them of that class one is always ashamed to meet with out of
England.

'Your countrymen are very merry yonder,' said the countess, as a more
uproarious burst than ever broke from the party.

'Yes,' said the count, perceiving that I felt uncomfortable at the
allusion, 'Englishmen always carry London about with them wherever they
go. Meet them in the Caucasus, and you'll find that they'll have some
imitation of a Blackwall dinner or a Greenwich party.'

'How comes it,' said I, amazed at the observation, 'that you know these
places you mention?'

'Oh, my dear sir, I have been very much about the world in my time, and
have always made it my business to see each people in their own peculiar
haunts. If at Vienna, I dine not at the "Wilde Man," but at the
"Puchs" in the Leopoldstadt. If in Dresden, I spend my evening in the
Gruen-Garten, beyond the Elbe. The bourgeoisie alone of any nation
preserve traits marked enough for a stranger's appreciation; the higher
classes are pretty much alike everywhere, and the nationality of the
peasant takes a narrow range, and offers little to amuse.'

'The count is a quick observer,' remarked madame, with a look of
pleasure sparkling in her eyes.

'I flatter myself,' rejoined he, 'I seldom err in my guesses. I knew my
friend here tolerably accurately without an introduction.'

There was something so kind in the tone he spoke in that I could have no
doubt of his desire to compliment me.

'Independently, too, of speaking most of the languages of Europe, I
possess a kind of knack for learning a patois,' continued he. 'At this
instant, I'll