equalled intellect whose name I bear the abandon of a large and
very untidy boy." Here is her letter:

"Xavier returned from I do not know where at midnight, absorbed in
calculations on the eternal question of his Aurora--la belle Aurore,
whom I begin to hate. Instead of anchoring,--I had set out the
guide-light above our roof, so he had but to descend and fasten the
plane--he wandered, profoundly distracted, above the town with his
anchor down! Figure to yourself, dear mother, it is the roof of the
mayor's house that the grapnel first engages! That I do not regret, for
the mayor's wife and I are not sympathetic; but when Xavier uproots my
pet araucaria and bears it across the garden into the conservatory I
protest at the top of my voice. Little Victor in his night-clothes runs
to the window, enormously amused at the parabolic flight without reason,
for it is too dark to see the grapnel, of my prized tree. The Mayor
of Meudon, thunders at our door in the name of the Law, demanding,
I suppose, my husband's head. Here is the conversation through the
megaphone--Xavier is two hundred feet above us:

"'Mons. Lavalle, descend and make reparation for outrage of domicile.
Descend, Mons. Lavalle!'

"No one answers.

"'Xavier Lavalle, in the name of the Law, descend and submit to process
for outrage of domicile.'

"Xavier, roused from his calculations, comprehending only the last
words: 'Outrage of domicile? My dear mayor, who is the man that has
corrupted thy Julie?'

"The mayor, furious, 'Xavier Lavalle--'

"Xavier, interrupting: 'I have not that felicity. I am only a dealer in
cyclones!'

"My faith, he raised one then! All Meudon attended in the streets, and
my Xavier, after a long time comprehending what he had done, excused
himself in a thousand apologies. At last the reconciliation was effected
in our house over a supper at two in the morning--Julie in a wonderful
costume of compromises, and I have her and the mayor pacified in bed in
the blue room."

And on the next day, while the mayor rebuilds his roof, her Xavier
departs anew for the Aurora Borealis, there to commence his life's work.
M. Victor Lavalle tells us of that historic collision (en plane) on the
flank of Hecla between Herrera, then a pillar of the Spanish school,
and the man destined to confute his theories and lead him intellectually
captive. Even through the years, the immense laugh of Lavalle as he
sustains the Spaniard's wrecked plane, and crie