dressed in the utmost
extremity of the prevailing fashion, almost to a ludicrous extent.
And there was a similar absurdity about his manner of hunting after
every species of enjoyment in the very sweat of his brow, so to
speak--striving, with a comic eagerness, to gulp down as much of it as
he possibly could grasp. I remember so well three particular instances
of this vanity and struggle for enjoyment of his that I must tell them
to you. Picture to yourselves this man, being at a place among the
hills, and invited by some people (ladies being among them), to go on a
walking expedition to see some waterfalls in the neighbourhood,
dressing himself for the occasion in a bran new silk coat, never worn
before, with beautiful shining steel buttons, and white silk stockings,
shoes with steel buckles, and his finest rings on his fingers. In the
thickest part of the pine forest which had to be passed through, a
tremendous thunderstorm came on; the rain fell in torrents, the brooks,
swollen by the rain, came rushing over the paths. You can well imagine
the state my poor friend found himself in very soon.

"It chanced that the tower of the Dominican Church at G---- was one
night struck by lightning. My friend was in raptures with the grand
fire-pillar which arose in the darkness, magically illuminating all the
country round; but he soon came to the conclusion that to get the real
picturesque effect of it in all its perfection, it would be the right
thing to go and look at it from a certain rising ground just outside
the town. So he set off as quickly as his carefulness in such matters
would permit him, not forgetting to put a packet of macaroons and a
flask of wine into certain of his pockets, or to carry a beautiful
bouquet of flowers in his hand, and a camp stool under his arm. Thus
equipped, he paced calmly out of the city gate and up on to the
eminence, where he sat himself down to enjoy the spectacle, smelling at
his bouquet, munching a macaroon, washing that down with a mouthful of
wine, in the most complete, beatific, quiescent state of enjoyment.
Really this fellow was--taking him all round----"

"Stop! stop!" cried Lothair, "you were going to tell us the adventure
of your own which helped you in writing your 'Gamester's Fortune,' and
you cannot get away from a fellow who seems to have been as ludicrous
as repulsive to every ordinarily constituted person's feelings."

"You must not blame me," said Theodore, "for lingerin