"Yes, dear Eric," said Alete, "I love your father. Pay however some attention to old Marguerite's preparations. I wish to be received like a princess, and if all the plate is not produced to do me honor, if the table be not covered with the finest linen and loaded with delicacies, if the furniture does not glitter like glass, and the passage-hall and corridor are not bright as if for a wedding, I will turn all the house upside down." "Well well," said Eric, "there you are a queen. My father will turn over all power to you, and you may make as many reforms as you please." Part III. A few days after the visit of Eric, the groom of M. de Vermondans took from the carriage-house two sleighs, trimmed with wolf and bear-skins, and harnessed to each of them a spirited horse, the activity of which seemed enhanced by the cold morning air. In the first sleigh sat M. de Vermondans and Alete; and Ireneus and Ebba entered the second. "Are we ready?" said the old man, as he took the reins in one hand, and the whip in the other. "Yes," said Ireneus, after he had wrapped up the delicate frame confided to him in a large Astracan-skin. "Well, let us start." The horses, as soon as the reins were loosed, left the house at a gallop. "I am glad," said Ebba to Ireneus, "that you are in Sweden at this season, which to us is so solemn." "Do you then celebrate Christmas with so much pomp?" "I do not think it is celebrated in any country of the world with so much joy and unanimity, from the northern extremity of the realm to the southern boundary, in town and country, in palace and peasant's hut." "I am sure that in this festival there are touching usages, with which you are thoroughly acquainted. I shall be delighted if you will explain them to me. All you have told me of your popular legends and superstitions, opens to me, as it were, a new world, in which, I assure you, I am glad to wander."