Sword and Gown

lows, except the south, and even that has to creep cautiously

regard those unhappy exotics with a fanatical pride, pointing them out to all comers as living witnesses to the perfection of the climate; they would gladly stone any irreverent stranger who should suggest a comparison between their sacred shrubs and the giants of Indian seas. The only inhabitant

were not for the melancholy invalids who haunt the spot perpetually. Faces and figures are to be seen sometimes that would send an uncomfortable shiver of revulsion through you if you met them on the Boulevard des Italiens, strengthened by your ante-prandian absinthe. Here, the place belonged to them so completely, tha

st delicacies at our neighbor's wedding-breakfast shall not pique our palate like the baked meats at his funeral? Not so; if we must give ground let us retreat in good order, leaving no shield behind us that our enemy may build into his trophy. If we are rash enough to assail Lady Violet Vavasour with petitions for a waltz, and see her look doubtfully down her scribbled tablets, till the "sweetest lips that ever were kissed" can find no gentler answer than the terrible "Engaged," let us not gnash suicidally our few remaining teeth, even though Brabazon Leslie-all the handsomer for the scar on his smooth forehead-should come up upon our traces, and ride roughshod over those hieroglyphics, as he did at Balaclava through Russian squadrons. Rather let us try to sympathize with his trium

ting-rays, are to be gathered on the "shores of long ago." Ah, cynic! you are strong enough to be merciful-just this once. Spare us the string of ex

e gods love w

ssing the terrace on their way hom

but I must speak to that poor Chateaumesnil. I shall see you at dinne

were crossed on a crutch-handle. He appeared profoundly unconscious of all that was passing, and never moved till Keene addressed him. Then, very slowly, he lifted

e of one who has wrestled with physical pain till it has assumed almost the visible and tangible shape of a personal enemy-a mocking devil, that always is ready, with fresh ingenuity of torture, to answer and punish the rebellious question, "Art thou come to tor

gher praise than to write in his dispatches, "Les 3me Chasseurs se sont conduits en héros; leur chef-d'escadron en-Chateaumesnil." And it was true that the annals of his house could boast of no nobler soldier, though they had been fighting hard since Clovis's day. His name is known very well in Africa. The spahis talk of it still ov

ught him very near to death; and the first thing he heard when

ring Keene'

ns-yet every now and then there will come a modulation, that shows how rich and cheery it might have been when trolling a chanson à boire-how clear and sonorous when, over the

. It is not a pastime, or a distraction, or an occasional fever-fit, but the sole interest of his existen

ry object and aim of his former life, when it was too late to form or turn to others. Imagine how eagerly his strong fiery nature must have grasped at some of these-how it must have appreciated the alternati

ement of his agonies: of their cessation they say no word; nor can they even prophesy that the end will come quickly. He is not allowed to read much, even if his taste lay that way, which it does not; for a literary Chasseur d'Afrique is such a whim as Nature

and consolation of the roturier. Neither was he ever heard to reproach a partner, or become bitter against an adversary. He seemed to take a pleasure in disappointing those who were always expecting from him some savage outbreak of temper: they judged from his appearance, and had some grounds for their anticipations; for, winning or losing, that strange look, half-weary, half-defiant, never was off his face. But, with Armand de Chateaumesnil, the grand seigneur had not been merged in the sol

larity of tastes, accounted for his liking the latter so well. He had little regard to throw away, and was chary of it in proportion. On the other ha

ed with roses when every other member of his congregation-embracing devotees of about a dozen different shades of High, Low, and Broad Church-thinks it his or her daily duty to decide, if the formula-Quamdiu se bene gesserit-has been duly complied with. Perhaps foreign air and warmer climates develop, like a hot-bed, our innate instinct of destructiveness. Look at portly respectable fathers of families-householders who, at home, have accepted their spiritual position without a murmur for a quarter of a century, roused to revolt by no vexed question of copes, candles, or church-rates-even these can not escape contagion. When once the game is afoot, they will open on the scent with the perseverance of the steadiest "line-hunter," and join in the "wo

d an occasional infirmity of temper, he had as few outward failings as could be desired. For one of no extreme views, he could count an extraordinary number of adherents. Without being particularly agreeable or instructive, he possessed a rather imposing readiness and rotundity of speech, and had a knack of turning his arm-chair into a pulpit somewhat oftener than was quite in good taste. However, I suppose the best of us will talk "shop" when we see a fair opening. He had a l

He regarded him as a brand likely to inflame others, but itself by no means to be plucked from the burning. The latter saw his gesture as h

we to do with lambs, except en suprême? But the sun is down; I must go

r the invalid with the grand courteous air that became him well; and he walked by the othe