ere weak, and soon
beaten off, and the poison was strong, and soon did its work; for he
joined me in less than half an hour.

My explanation was listened to patiently, and, what surprised me more,
without astonishment. He saw nothing exaggerated or high-flown in the
difficulties I started, and even went the length of confessing that
many of my objections had occurred to his own mind. "But then," said he,
"what is to be done? If you turn soldier, are you always certain that
you will concur in the justice of the cause for which you fight? Become
a lawyer, and is not half your life passed in arraigning the right and
defending the wrong? Try medicine; and where will be your 'practice'
if you only prescribe for the really afflicted, and do not indulge the
caprices and foster the complainings of the 'malade imaginaire '? As an
apothecary, you would vend poisons; as an architect, you would devise
jails and penitentiaries; and so to the end of the chapter. Optimism is
just as impracticable as it is dangerous. Accept the world as you find
it, not because it is the best, but because it is the only policy; and,
above all, be slow in changing a career where you have met with success.
The best proof that it suits you is, that the public think so."

Being determined on my course, I now affected a desire to see life iu
some other form, and observe mankind under some other aspect. To this
he assented freely, and, after a few moments' discussion, suddenly
bethought him of a letter he had received that very morning. "You
remember the Duc de St. Cloud, whom you met at dinner the first day you
spent here?"

"Perfectly."

"Well, he was, as you are aware, ordered off to Africa, to take a high
military command a few days after, and has not since returned to France.
This day I have received a letter from him, asking me to recommend some
one among my literary acquaintances to fill the office of his private
secretary. You are exactly the man for the appointment. The duties are
light, the pay liberal, the position agreeable in every way; and,
in fact, for one who desires to see something of the world which the
Boulevard du Gent and the Cafe de Paris cannot show him, the opportunity
is first rate."

The proposal overjoyed me! Had I been called on to invent a post for
myself, this was exactly the thing I should have fancied. A campaign
against the Arabs; the novelty of country, people, and events; a life of
adventure, with a prince for my com