d, by simply
reminding her that Mr. W. G. has only seen one half, and, by long odds,
the least interesting half, of our correspondence, and that for the
other he must address himself to me. Husbands have occasionally to learn
that a small sealed packet of old letters would be a more acceptable
present to the bride on her wedding morning than the prettiest trinket
from the Rue de la Paix. Should like to throw this shell into the midst
of the orange-flowers and the wedding favours, and I'd do it too, only
that I could never accurately hear of the tumult and dismay it caused.
I should be left to mere imagination for the mischief and imagination no
longer satisfies me."

While he thus mused, he saw Loyd preparing for one of his daily
excursions with the photographic apparatus, and could not help a
contemptuous pity for a fellow so easily amused and interested, and
so easily diverted from the great business of life--which he deemed
"getting on"--to a pastime which cost labour and returned no profit.

"Come and see 'I Grangeri' (the name by which the Italians designated
the English family at the villa), it's far better fun than hunting out
rocky bits, or ruined fragments of masonry. Come, and I'll promise you
something prettier to look at than all your feathery ferns or drooping
foxgloves."

Loyd tried to excuse himself. He was always shy and timid with strangers.
His bashfulness repelled intimacy and so he frankly owned that he would
only be a bar to his friend's happiness, and throw a cloud over this
pleasant intercourse.

"How do you know but I'd like that?" said Calvert with a mocking laugh.
"How do you know but I want the very force of a contrast to bring my own
merits more conspicuously forward?"

"And make them declare when we went away, that it is inconceivable why
Mr. Calvert should have made a companion of that tiresome Mr. Loyd--so
low-spirited and so dreary, and so uninteresting in every way?"

"Just so! And that the whole thing has but one explanation--in Calvert's
kindness and generosity; who, seeing the helplessness of this poor
depressed creature, has actually sacrificed himself to vivify and cheer
him. As we hear of the healthy people suffering themselves to be bled
that they might impart their vigorous heart's blood to a poor wretch in
the cholera."

"But I'm not blue yet," said Loyd laughing. "I almost think I could get
on with my own resources."

"Of course you might, in the fashion you do at pre