ke four hundred pounds. A less
expensive style of living in London never seems to have presented
itself as an alternative. So, like many an Englishman before and
since, he resolved to go abroad to economise.

His old friend Deyverdun was now settled in a comfortable house at
Lausanne, overlooking the Lake of Geneva. They had not met for eight
years. But the friendship had begun a quarter of a century before, in
the old days when Gibbon was a boarder in Pavillard's house, and the
embers of old associations only wanted stirring to make them shoot up
into flame. In a moment of expansion Gibbon wrote off a warm and eager
letter to his friend, setting forth his unsatisfactory position, and
his wish and even necessity to change it. He gradually and with much
delicacy discloses his plan, that he and Deyverdun, both now old
bachelors, should combine their solitary lives in a common household
and carry out an old project, often discussed in younger days, of
living together. "You live in a charming house. I see from here my
apartment, the rooms we shall share with one another, our table, our
walks. But such a marriage is worthless unless it suits both parties,
and I easily feel that circumstances, new tastes, and connections may
frustrate a design which appeared charming in the distance. To settle
my mind and to avoid regrets, you must be as frank as I have been, and
give me a true picture, external and internal, of George Deyverdun."

This letter, written in fluent and perfect French, is one of the best
that we have of Gibbon. Deyverdun answered promptly, and met his
friend's advances with at least equal warmth. The few letters that
have been preserved of his connected with this subject give a highly
favourable idea of his mind and character, and show he was quite
worthy of the long and constant attachment that Gibbon felt for him.
He cannot express the delight he has felt at his friend's proposal; by
the rarest piece of good fortune, it so happens that he himself is in
a somewhat similar position of uncertainty and difficulty; a year ago
Gibbon's letter would have given him pleasure, now it offers
assistance and support. After a few details concerning the tenant who
occupies a portion of his house, he proceeds to urge Gibbon to carry
out the project he had suggested, to break loose from parliament and
politics, for which he was not fit, and to give himself up to the
charms of study and friendship. "Call to mind, my dear friend