Excerpt from Valentin and Number Seventeen MY father, at this present moment, in spite of all that has come and gone, is a very rich man. I do not say that he is rich as the English understand it, but he has even now rents to the amount Of francs a year, about sterling. Had he been poor, it might have been better or worse for me, but he is rich even now. I am the only son, and so I have been brought up in entire idleness. I have had certainly a fine education, partly at Metz and partly at home; but I have never done any thing great, simply because I never was taught how to do any thing. I em informed that some of you young Englishmen are in exactly the same position; but it is hard to believe, because I have always been taught that you are so very practical. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.