in tableau the
luxurious self-indulgence of the age we live in. For let us talk as we
will of progress and mental activity, be as boastful as we may about the
march of science and discovery, in what are we so really conspicuous as
in the inventions that multiply ease, and bring the means of indulgence
within the reach of even moderate fortune?

As the wood fire crackled and flared on the ample hearth, a heavy plash
of hail struck the window, and threatened almost to smash it.

"What a night!" said Maitland, drawing closer to the blaze. "I say,
_Carlo mio_, it's somewhat cosier to sit in this fashion than be
toddling over the Mont Cenis in a shabby old sledge, and listening to
the discussion whether you are to spend the night in the 'Refuge No.
One, or No. Two.'"

"Yes," said Caffarelli, "it must have been a great relief to you to
have got my telegram in Dublin, and to know that you need not cross the
Alps."

"If I could only have been certain that I understood it aright, I 'd
have gone straight back to the north from whence I came; but there was a
word that puzzled me,--the word _calamita_. Now we have not yet arrived
at the excellence of accenting foreign words in our telegraph offices;
and as your most amiable and philosophical of all nations has but the
same combination of letters to express an attraction and an affliction,
I was sorely puzzled to make out whether you wrote with or without an
accent on the last syllable. It made all the difference in the world
whether you say events are a 'loadstone' or a 'misfortune.' I gave half
an hour to the study of the passage, and then came on."

"_Per Bacco!_ I never thought of that; but what, under any
circumstances, would have induced you to go back again?"

"I fell in love!"

Caffarelli pushed the lamp aside to have a better view of his friend,
and then laughed long and heartily. "Maso Arretini used often to say,
'Maitland will die a monk;' and I begin now to believe it is quite
possible."

"Maso was a fool for his prediction. Had I meant to be a monk, I 'd
have taken to the cowl when I had youth and vigor and dash in me, the
qualities a man ought to bring to a new career. Ha! what is there so
strange in the fact that I should fall in love?"

"Don't ask as if you were offended with me, and I 'll try and tell you."

"I am calm; go on."

"First of all, Maitland, no easy conquest would satisfy your vanity, and
you'd never have patience to pursue a difficult one.