is a sensible man in his way, though not very practical: he is fond of science, and lives half his life in a laboratory trying experiments⁠—a thing his butterfly wife could neither comprehend nor endure; and indeed,” confessed my godmother, “I should not have liked it myself.”

In answer to a question of mine, she further informed me that her late husband used to say, Mr. Home had derived this scientific turn from a maternal uncle, a French savant; for he came, it seems, of mixed French and Scottish origin, and had connections now living in France, of whom more than one wrote de before his name, and called himself noble.