AN INVADER 289 



" I do not know what to say, I do not know which 

 sonnet I prefer ; I have taken horrible pains with all of 

 them . . . But you, which do you prefer?" 



" My dear master, how can I choose out of so many 

 jewels, when each one is perfect in its beauty? You 

 flash pearls, emeralds, and rubies before my astonished 

 eyes : how should I decide to prefer the emerald to the 

 pearl ? I am transported by admiration of the whole 

 necklace." 



" Well, as for me, there is something I am more proud 

 of than of all my sonnets, and which has done much 

 more for my reputation than my verses." 



I opened my eyes wide, " What is that ? " I asked. 

 The master looked at me mischievously ; then, with that 

 beautiful light in his eyes which fires his youthful 

 countenance, he said triumphantly — 



" It is my discovery of the etymology of the word 

 haricot ! " 



I was so amazed that I forgot to laugh. 



" I am perfectly serious in telling you this." 



" I know, my dear master, of your reputation for 

 profound scholarship : but to imagine, on that account, 

 that you were famed for your discovery of the etymology 

 of haricot — I should never have expected it ! Will you 

 tell me how you made the discovery ? " 



" Willingly. See now : I found some information 

 respecting the haricot while studying that fine seventeenth- 

 century work of natural history by Hernandez : De 

 Hi^ioria planiarum novi orbis. The word haricot was 

 unknown in France until the seventeenth century : 

 people used the word feve or phaseol : in Mexican, ayacot 

 Thirty species of haricot were cultivated in Mexico 



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