stoop to pluck pansies. Mysterious Cuban
ladies, in fact ladies of any description, would pass him by as a
middle-aged person of a somewhat distressed appearance, and the dreams
of his youth are quite dreamed out. Nevertheless, when he warms with my
white Hermitage, the colors of his old life come richly out into sight,
and the romantic adventures of wealth and high spirits overpower, though
in the tame measures of recital, all the adverse influences of the
present hour. But as the evening wanes, the colors fade again; his
voice assumes a dreary tone; and I once more feel that I am with a man
who has outlived himself, and who, having never learned where the late
roses blow, is now too old to learn.

The reader will perceive I am sorry for Boscobello. If I am remarkable
for anything, it is for my humanity, consideration, and sympathy.

These qualities of my constitution lead me to enter into the affairs of
my clients with feeling and sincerity, but I fear I am sometimes
misunderstood. Not long ago I issued an order to my junior partners to
exercise more compassion for those unfortunate men with whom we decline
business, and not to tumble them down the front steps so roughly. Let
six of the porters attend with trestles, I said, and carry them out
carefully, and dump them with discretion in some quiet corner, where, as
soon as they recover their faculties, they may get up and walk away. I
put it to the reader if this was not a very humane idea, and yet there
are those who have stigmatized it as heartless.

I wish I was better acquainted with the way in which common people live.
I can see how I have made mistakes in consequence of not understanding
the restricted means and the exigencies of these people, who are styled
respectable merchants. Thus when Boscobello has made some more than
ordinarily piteous application, I have said, 'Boscobello, dismiss about
fifty of your servants;' or, 'Boscobello, sell a railroad and put the
money back again into your business;' or, 'Boscobello, my good friend,
limit your table, say, to turtle soup, champagne, and truffles; live
more plainly, and don't take above ten quarts of strawberries a day
during the winter,--the lower servants don't really need them;' or,
'Boscobello, if you are really short, send around a hundred or so of
your fast trotters to my stables, and I'll pay you a long figure for
them, if they are warranted under two minutes.' Boscobello has never
made any very definite