an with a
strange smile, "Is it you, Alina? The old people live still, do they
not?" And with this he got up, went through every room, considered
every chair, every table, and every picture, and then calmly added,
"Yes, it is all just as I left it, and just so shall it remain."

From this moment Peregrine adopted the strange life which was mentioned
at the very beginning of our story. Retired from all society, he lived
with his aged attendant in the large roomy house in the deepest
solitude: subsequently he let out a couple of rooms to an old man, who
had been his father's friend, and seemed as misanthropical as himself--
reason enough why the two should agree remarkably well, for they never
saw each other.

There were four family festivals which Peregrine celebrated with
infinite solemnity; and these were the birth-days of his father and
mother, Easter, and his own day of christening. At these times Alina
had to set out a table for as many persons as his father had been wont
to invite, with the same wine and dishes which had been usually served
up on those occasions. Of course the same silver, the same plates, the
same glasses, such as had then been used, and such as they still
remained, were now brought forward, in the fashion which had prevailed
for so many years. Peregrine kept to this strictly. Was the table
ready? He sat down to it alone, ate and drank but little, listened to
the conversation of his parents, and the imaginary guests, and replied
modestly to this or that question as it was directed to him by any one
of the company. Did his mother put back her seat? he too rose with the
rest, and took his leave of each with great courtesy. Then he retired
to a distant chamber, and consigned to Alina the division of the wine
and the many untasted dishes amongst the poor; which command of her
master, the faithful soul was wont to execute most conscientiously. The
celebration of the two birth-days he began early in the morning, that,
according to the custom of his boyhood, he might carry a handsome
nosegay into the room where his parents used to breakfast, and repeat
verses which he had got by heart for the occasion. On his own day of
christening, he naturally could not sit at table, as he had not then
been long born; Alina, therefore, had to attend to every thing, that
is, to invite people to drink, and, in the general phrase, to do the
honours of the table: with this exception, every thing was the same as
at the ot