ancholy by joining a distinguished assembly
in Rome; for to find a charm in reverie, we must in our happy as well as
in our clouded moments, be at peace with ourselves.

The party he visited was soon insupportable to Lord Nelville, inasmuch
as it made him feel more sensibly all the charms that Corinne could
diffuse through society, by observing the void caused by her absence. He
essayed to converse with some ladies, who answered him in that insipid
phraseology which is established to avoid the true expression of our
sentiments and opinions, if those who use it have anything of this sort
to conceal. He approached several groups of gentlemen who seemed by
their voice and gesture to be discoursing upon some important subject;
he heard them discussing the most trivial topic in the most common
manner. He then sat down to contemplate at his ease, that vivacity
without motive and without aim which is found in most numerous
assemblies; nevertheless, mediocrity in Italy is by no means
disagreeable; it has little vanity, little jealousy, and much respect
for superiority of mind; and if it fatigues with its dulness, it hardly
ever offends by its pretensions.

It was in these very assemblies, however, that Oswald had found so much
to interest him a few days before; the slight obstacle which the company
opposed to his conversation with Corinne,--the speedy opportunity which
she took to return to him as soon as she had been sufficiently polite to
the rest of the circle,--the similarity of sentiment which existed
between them in the observations which the company suggested,--the
pleasure which Corinne took when discoursing in Oswald's presence, to
address indirectly to him some reflection of which he alone comprehended
the true meaning, had attached such recollections to every part of this
very room, that Oswald had been deluded so far as to believe that there
was something amusing in these assemblies themselves. "Ah!" said he,
when departing, "it was here as every where else--she was the life of
the scene; let me rather seek the most desert spot till she return. I
shall feel her absence less bitterly when there is nothing about me
bearing the resemblance of pleasure."

Book x.

HOLY WEEK.

[Illustration]

Chapter i.

Oswald passed the following day in the gardens of some monasteries. He
went first to that of the Carthusians, and stopped some time before he
entered, to contemplate two Egyptian lions which are at