d with me if
I had had a velleity towards German; but I never had any. But I rather
wonder you should have placed your library on the upper instead of the
middle floor. The prospect, as you have observed, is fine from all the
floors; but here you have the sea and the sky to the greatest advantage;
and I would assign my best look-out to the hours of dressing and
undressing; the first thing in the morning, the last at night, and the
half-hour before dinner. You can give greater attention to the views
before you when you are following operations, important certainly, but
mechanical from repetition, and uninteresting in themselves, than when
you are engaged in some absorbing study, which probably shuts out all
perception of the external world.'

'What you say is very true, sir,' said the other; 'but you know the
lines of Milton--

'Or let my lamp, at midnight hour,
Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,
With thrice great Hermes.

'These lines have haunted me from very early days, and principally
influenced me in purchasing this tower, and placing my library on the
top of it. And I have another association with such a mode of life.'

A French clock in the library struck two, and the young gentleman
proposed to his visitor to walk into the house. They accordingly
descended the stairs, and crossed the entrance-hall to a large
drawing-room, simply but handsomely furnished; having some good pictures
on the walls, an organ at one end of the room, a piano and harp at the
other, and an elegantly-disposed luncheon in the middle.

'At this time of the year,' said the young gentleman, 'I lunch at two,
and dine at eight. This gives me two long divisions of the morning, for
any in-door and out-door purposes. I hope you will partake with me. You
will not find a precedent in Homer for declining the invitation.'

'Really,' said the doctor, 'that argument is cogent and conclusive. I
accept with pleasure: and indeed my long walk has given me an appetite.'

'Now you must know,' said the young gentleman, 'I have none but female
domestics. You will see my two waiting-maids.'

He rang the bell, and the specified attendants appeared: two young
girls about sixteen and seventeen; both pretty, and simply, but very
becomingly, dressed.

Of the provision set before him the doctor preferred some cold chicken
and tongue. Madeira and sherry were on the table, and the young