"Monsieur Blunt leans nearer to the side of cousin Jack, I fear, than to that of my dear, dear father. He says men of Mr. Dodge's character, propensities, malignancy, intolerance, ignorance, vulgarity, and peculiar vices abound in and about the American press. He even insists that they do an incalculable amount of harm, by influencing those who have no better sources of information; by setting up low jealousies and envy in the place of principles and the right; by substituting--I use his own words, mademoiselle," said Eve, blushing with the consciousness of the fidelity of her memory--"by substituting uninstructed provincial notions for true taste and liberality; by confounding the real principles of liberty with personal envies, and the jealousies of station; and by losing sight entirely of their duties to the public, in the effort to advance their own interests. He says that the government is in truth a _press-ocracy_, and a press-ocracy, too, that has not the redeeming merit of either principles, tastes, talents or knowledge." "Ce Monsieur Blunt has been very explicit, and _suffisamment eloquent_," returned Mademoiselle Viefville, gravely; for the prudent governess did not fail to observe that Eve used language so very different from that which was habitual to her, as to make her suspect she quoted literally. For the first time the suspicion was painfully awakened, that it was her duty to be more vigilant in relation to the intercourse between her charge and the two agreeable young men whom accident had given them as fellow-passengers. After a short but musing pause, she again adverted to the subject of their previous conversation. "Ce Monsieur Dodge, est il ridicule!" "On that point at least, my dear mademoiselle, there can be no mistake. And yet cousin Jack insists that this stuff will be given to his readers, as views of Europe worthy of their attention." "Ce conte du roi!--mais, c'est trop fort!" "With the coat laced at the seams, and the cocked hat!" "Et l'honorable Louis Philippe d'Orleans!" "Orleans, mademoiselle; d'Orleans would be anti-republican." Then the two ladies sat looking at each other a few moments in silence, when both, although of a proper _retenue_ of manner in general, burst into a hearty and long-continued fit of laughter. Indeed, so long did Eve, in the buoyancy of her young spirits, and her keen perception of the ludicrous, indulge herself, that her fair hair fell about her rosy cheeks, and her bright eyes fairly danced with delight. Chapter XVI. And there he went ashore without delay, Having no custom-house or quarantine,-- To ask him awkward questions on the way About the time and place where he had been. BYRON.