one of the ponderous quaintness that usually
characterizes ancestral dwellings in that locality. The edifice could
still boast of imposing grandeur, especially if classed among "fine
ruins." Within and without were harmoniously dilapidated, and a large
portion of the interior was uninhabitable. The limited resources of the
count precluded even an apologetic semblance of repairs.

The house was surrounded by spacious parks and pleasure-grounds, in a
similarly neglected condition. Their natural beauty was striking, and
the rich soil yielded fruits and flowers in abundance, though its only
culture was received from the hands of old Baptiste, who made his
appearance as gardener in the morning, but, with a total change of
costume, was metamorphosed into butler after the sun passed the
meridian. In his button-hole a flower, which he could never be induced
to forego, betrayed his preference for the former vocation.

The discussion between mother and son was unmistakably tempestuous. A
thunder-cloud lowered on the noble lady's brow; her eyes shot forth
electric flashes, and her voice, usually subdued to aristocratic
softness, was raised to storm-pitch.

"Count Tristan de Gramont, you have taken leave of your senses!"

A favorite declaration of persons thoroughly convinced of their own
unassailable mental equilibrium, when their convictions encounter the
sudden check of opposition.

As the assertion, unfortunately, is one that cannot be disproved by
denial, the count sank resignedly behind the shield of silence. His
mother returned to the attack.

"Do you mean me to understand that, in your right mind, you would
condescend to mingle with men of business?--that you would actually
degrade yourself into becoming a shareholder, or manager, or director,
or whatever you please to term it, in a railway company?--_you_, Count
Tristan de Gramont! The very proposal is a humiliation; to entertain it
would be an absurdity--to consent, an impossibility. I repeat it, you
have taken leave of your senses!"

"But, my dear mother," answered the count, with marked deference, "you
are forgetting that this railway company chances to be an American
association; my connection with it, or, rather, its very existence, is
not likely to be known here in Brittany,--therefore, my dignity will not
be compromised. The only valuable property left us is the transatlantic
estate which my roving brother purchased during his wanderings in the
New World, an