would hardly benefit much by his foreign experiences, if he
went alone. His glance would never penetrate beneath the surface of
things, and he therefore needed a companion, whose aesthetic culture
was superior to his own. Cranbrook flattered himself that he was such
a companion, and vowed in his heart to give Harry full returns in
intellectual capital for what he expended on him in sordid metals.
Moreover, Harry had a clear income of fifteen to twenty thousand a
year, while he, Cranbrook, had scarcely anything which he could call
his own. I dare say that if Vincent had known all the benevolent plans
which his friend had formed for his mental improvement, he would have
thought twice before engaging him as his travelling companion; but
fortunately he was so well satisfied with his own mental condition,
and so utterly unconscious of his short-comings in point of intellect,
that he could not have treated an educational scheme of which he was
himself to be the subject as anything but an amiable lunacy on Jack's
part, or at the worst, as a practical joke. Jack was good company;
that was with him the chief consideration; his madness was harmless
and had the advantage of being entertaining; he was moreover at heart
a good fellow, and the stanchest and most loyal of friends. Harry was
often heard to express the most cheerful confidence in Jack's future;
he would be sure to come out right in the end, as soon as he had cut
his eye-teeth, and very likely Europe might be just the thing for a
complaint like his.

II.

After having marched over nearly half a mile of marble flag-stones,
interrupted here and there by strips of precious mosaic, the two young
men paused at the entrance to a long, vaulted corridor. White, silent
gods stood gazing gravely from their niches in the wall, and the pale
November sun was struggling feebly to penetrate through the dusty
windows. It did not dispel the dusk, but gave it just the tenderest
suffusion of sunshine.

"Stop," whispered Cranbrook. "I want you to take in the total
impression of this scene before you examine the details. Only listen
to this primeval stillness; feel, if you can, the stately monotony of
this corridor, the divine repose and dignity of these marble forms,
the chill immobility of this light. It seems to me that, if a full,
majestic organ-tone could be architecturally expressed, it must of
necessity assume a shape resembling the broad, cold masses of this
aisle. I should c