othing
but mineralogical specimens. After this they passed in review the riches
of all kinds which the engineer had crowded among his linen and
clothing.

A pleasant odor of Russia leather, tea from the caravans, Levant
tobacco, and attar of roses soon permeated the laboratory. Leon brought
forth a little at a time, as is the custom of all rich travellers who,
on leaving home, left a family and good stock of friends behind. He
exhibited, in turn, fabrics of the Asiatic looms, narghiles of embossed
silver from Persia, boxes of tea, sherbets flavored with rose, precious
extracts, golden webs from Tarjok, antique armor, a service of frosted
silver of Toula make, jewelry mounted in the Russian style, Caucasian
bracelets, necklaces of milky amber, and a leather sack full of
turquoises such as they sell at the fair of Nijni Novgorod. Each object
passed from hand to hand amid questions, explanations, and interjections
of all kinds. All the friends present received the gifts intended for
them. There was a concert of polite refusals, friendly urgings, and
'thank-yous' in all sorts of voices. It is unnecessary to say that much
the greater share fell to the lot of Clementine; but she did not wait to
be urged to accept them, for, in the existing state of affairs, all
these pretty things would be but as a part of the wedding gifts--not
going out of the family.

Leon had brought his father an exceedingly handsome dressing gown of a
cloth embroidered with gold, some antiquarian books found in Moscow, a
pretty picture by Greuze, which had been stuck out of the way, by the
luckiest of accidents, in a mean shop at Gastinitvor; two magnificent
specimens of rock-crystal, and a cane that had belonged to Humboldt.
"You see," said he to M. Renault, on handing him this historic staff,
"that the postscript of your last letter did not fall overboard." The
old professor received the present with visible emotion.

"I will never use it," said he to his son. "The Napoleon of science has
held it in his hand: what would one think if an old sergeant like me
should permit himself to carry it in his walks in the woods? And the
collections? Were you not able to buy anything from them? Did they sell
very high?"

"They were not sold," answered Leon. "All were placed in the National
Museum at Berlin. But in my eagerness to satisfy you, I made a thief of
myself in a strange way. The very day of my arrival, I told your wish to
a guide who was showing me t