“To resemble the latter, one might consent to walk blindfold, dearest uncle; and so we dismiss the subject. François, fais moi le plaisir de porter ce petit livre; malgré la fraîcheur de la fôret, j’ai besoin de m’évanter.” The valet took the book, with an empressement that defeated the more tardy politeness of the Patroon; and when he saw, by the vexed eye and flushed cheek of his young mistress, that she was incommoded rather by an internal than by the external heat, he whispered considerately,— “Que ma chère Mademoiselle Alide ne se fâche pas! Elle ne manquerait jamais d’admirateurs, dans un désert. Ah! si Mam’selle allait voir la patrie de ses ancêtres!—” “’Merci bien, mon cher; gardez les feuilles, fortement fermées. Il y a des papiers dedans.” “Monsieur François,” said the Alderman, separating his niece, with little ceremony, from her nearly parental attendant, by the interposition of his own bulky person, and motioning for the others to proceed, “a word with thee in confidence. I have noted, in the course of a busy and I hope a profitable life, that a faithful servant is an honest counsellor. Next to Holland and England, both of which are great commercial nations, and the Indies, which are necessary to these colonies, together with a natural preference for the land in which I was born, I have always been of opinion, that France is a very good sort of a country. I think, Mr. Francis, that dislike to the seas has kept you from returning thither, since the decease of my late brother-in-law?” “Wid like for Mam’selle Alide, Monsieur, avec votre permission.” “Your affection for my niece, honest François, is not to be doubted. It is as certain as the payment of a good draft, by Crommeline, Van Stopper, and Van Gelt, of Amsterdam. Ah! old valet! she is fresh and blooming as a rose, and a girl of excellent qualities! ’Tis a pity that she is a little opinionated; a defect that she doubtless inherits from her Norman ancestors; since all of my family have ever been remarkable for listening to reason. The Normans were an obstinate race, as witness the siege of Rochelle, by which oversight real estate in that city must have lost much in value!” “Mille excuses, Monsieur Bevre’——; more beautiful as de rose, and no opiniâtre du tout. Mon Dieu! pour sa qualité, c’est une famille très ancienne.” “That was a weak point with my brother Barbérie, and, after all, it did not add a cipher to the sum-total of the assets. The best blood, Mr. François, is that which has been best fed. The line of Hugh Capet himself would fail, without the butcher; and the butcher would certainly fail, without customers that can pay. François, thou art a man who understands the value of a sure footing in the world; would it not be a thousand pities, that such a girl as Alida should throw herself away on one whose best foundation is no better than a rolling ship?” “Certainement, Monsieur; Mam’selle be too good to roll in de ship.”