LEYDENTHE FAT OF THE LAND 311 



that is Swedish too roes, rose, knopie, knob.' When 

 the rich banker's gardens became, as they sometimes 

 were, the playground of a brilliant circle of fashionables 

 from the Hague and Amsterdam : when the lawns and 

 groves were crowded with modish folks with bright 

 complexions, powder and patches, smiles, toques and 

 turbans, tall ample-ribboned hats, trains and hooped 

 petticoats, and all the paraphernalia of a breakfast 

 party in the afternoon : the interesting but dumb young 

 Swede at first shunned the band of youth and wit, and 

 mingled with the fusty celebrities exclusively. 



Although ' endowed by art or nature with those 

 happy gifts of confidence and address which unlock 

 every door and every bosom,' and solid learning be- 

 sides, to give these airy graces weight, what could 

 these things avail him outside the learned and mascu- 

 line circle ? Clifford enjoyed Carl's society intensely, 

 and elderly men admired him. ' His gifts were just 

 what Holland needed ; here he was brilliantly successful.' 

 Young men envied him. from a distance, but women 

 held him in too much awe. He possessed ' that flexi- 

 bility of manner and readiness of gentle repartee ' which 

 would have made him delightful to young women, but 

 that his talk was all in Latin. What a pity ! Other- 

 wise he could have talked quite as much nonsense as 

 other people. What avails even a firework of wit if it 

 is all in Swedish or Latin ? But they did not know 

 that the young mute with the bright eyes,* expressive 

 1 ' His eyes, of all the eyes I ever saw, were the most beautiful, 



