Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/210

 of grapes, in order to transport her countrymen with joy and pleasure?"

The enthusiastic young man had scarcely concluded the last word, ere the professor let fall the letter upon the floor, and turned as pale as a sheet.

"What is the matter with you?" exclaimed all.

The professor sat down in his arm-chair, and endeavoured to collect himself; at length he said, deeply affected:

"All of you, my friends, have been witnesses with what reasonable zeal, with what sincere disinterested friendship, I have devoted myself to this haughty, proud woman, who pretends to be a genius, how much of my valuable time I have sacrificed to her, in order to enlighten her dark-witted intellects, and to influence her with a desire for acquiring substantial knowledge, and thus render her capable of enjoying a more spiritual existence.

"She also appeared to acknowledge this; and yet it is impossible that a French woman can deny herself so far as to lay aside the excessive pride, the self-love, the insolent presumption of her nation. For look here yourselves, with your own eyes, at this scandalous sheet of paper—read