I can never go into ecstasies over such a country as this.

I am as fond of the country as any one, but this is not the country--it is the desert, Arabia Petroea, I know not what.

And as to your chateau, my dear friend--I am sorry to tell you so: it has a savor of crime.

Look well, and you'll see that a murder has been committed in it." "Why, no, my dear madam," replied Lucan laughingly, "I know perfectly the history of my family, and I can guarantee you--" "Rest assured, my friend, that some one has been killed in it--in old times.

You know how little they troubled themselves about those things formerly!" Julia's letters to her mother were frequent.