d playfulness; trifles were sometimes discussed
with an important tone, but oftener important matters with levity;
and especially pleasantly flew the wit over absent friends and their
circumstances. I was too strange to understand much of all this; too
anxious and introverted to take an interest in such riddles.

We had reached the rosary. The lovely Fanny, the belle of the day,
as it appeared, would, out of obstinacy, herself break off a blooming
bough. She wounded herself on a thorn, and as if from the dark roses,
flowed the purple on her tender hand. This circumstance put the whole
party into a flutter. English plaster was sought for. A still,
thin, lanky, longish, oldish man, who stood near, and whom I had
not hitherto remarked, put his hand instantly into the close-lying
breast-pocket of his old French gray taffetty coat; produced thence
a little pocket-book; opened it; and presented to the lady, with a
profound obeisance, the required article. She took it without noticing
the giver, and without thanks; the wound was bound up; and we went
forward over the hill, from whose back the company could enjoy the
wide prospect over the green labyrinth of the park to the boundless
ocean.

The view was in reality vast and splendid. A light point appeared
on the horizon between the dark flood and the blue of the heaven.
"A telescope here!" cried John; and already, before the servants who
appeared at the call were in motion, the gray man, modestly bowing,
had thrust his hand into his coat-pocket, and drawn thence a beautiful
Dollond and handed it to John. Bringing it immediately to his eye,
the latter informed the company that it was the ship which went out
yesterday, and was detained in view of port by contrary winds. The
telescope passed from hand to hand, but not again into that of its
owner. I, however, gazed in wonder at the man, and could not conceive
how the great machine had come out of the narrow pocket; but this
seemed to have struck no one else, and nobody troubled himself any
farther about the gray man than about myself.

Refreshments were handed round; the choicest fruits of every zone, in
the costliest vessels. Mr. John did the honors with an easy grace, and
a second time addressed a word to me. "Help yourself; you have not had
the like at sea." I bowed, but he saw it not; he was already speaking
with some one else.

The company would fain have reclined upon the sward on the slope of
the hill, opposite to the