The unfortunate men of this community are kept in pitiable terror lest they commit an anachronism, and if, after a careful reconnoissance of the slippery ground, they tremblingly venture an anecdote of Selwyn or Hood, or Beaumarchais, they are invariably driven back in confusion by the inquiry, if they remember this or that bon mot uttered at the court of Aurungzebe or of one of the early Incas!  Ah! would I were Moliere to repaint Les Precieuses Ridicules!”

Although his eyes had never once wandered from his cousin’s face, toward the corner where Edna sat embroidering some mats, she felt the blood burning in her cheeks, and forced herself to look up.  At that moment, as he stood in the soft glow of the firelight, he was handsomer than she had ever seen him; and when he glanced swiftly over his shoulder to mark the effect of his words, their eyes met, and she smiled involuntarily.

“For shame, St. Elmo!  I will have you presented by the grand jury of this county for wholesome defamation of the inhabitants thereof,” said his mother, shaking her finger at him.

Estelle laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

“My poor cousin! how I pity you, and the remainder of the men here, surrounded by such a formidable coterie of blues.”

“Believe me, even if their shadows are as blue as those which I have seen thrown upon the snow of Eyriks Jokull, in Iceland, where I would have sworn that every shade cast on the mountain was a blot of indigo.  Sometimes I seriously contemplate erecting an observatory and telescope, in order to sweep our sky and render visible what I am convinced exist there undiscovered—­some of those deep blue nebulae which Sir John Herschel found in the southern hemisphere!  If the astronomical conjectures be correct, concerning the possibility of a galaxy of blue stars, a huge cluster hangs in this neighborhood and furnishes an explanation of the color of the women.”

“Henceforth, St. Elmo, the sole study of my life shall be to forget my alphabet.  Miss Earl, do you understand Hebrew?”

“Oh, no; I have only begun to study it.”

“Estelle, it is the popular and fashionable amusement here.  Young ladies and young gentlemen form classes for mutual aid and ’mutual admiration’ while they clasp hands over the Masora.  If Lord Brougham, and other members of the ’Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,’ could only have been induced to investigate the intellectual status of the ‘rising generation’ of our village, there is little room to doubt that, as they are not deemed advocates for works of supererogation, they would long ago have appreciated the expediency of disbanding said society.  I imagine Tennyson is a clairvoyant, and was looking at the young people of this vicinage, when he wrote: 

‘Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.’

Not even egoistic infallible ’Brain Town’—­that self-complacent and pretentious ‘Hub,’ can show a more ambitious covey of literary fledgelings!”