of expressions of affection, had abundantly shown; but the
engrossments of business had been unceasing, and he had met them with
that American abandonment of other thought, which, while it insures
special success, is too apt to make shipwreck of all besides. He was
living, moreover, without experience of those tender family ties which
ripen a man's domestic affections, and make the absence of a child--most
of all, an only child--a daily burden.

Maverick shows no more appearance of age than when we saw him ten years
since, placing his little offering of flowers upon the breakfast-table
of poor Rachel,--an excellently well-preserved man,--dressed always in
that close conformity to the existing mode which of itself gives a young
air,--brushing his hair sedulously so as to cover the growing spot of
baldness,--regulating all his table indulgences with the same precision
with which he governs his business,--using all the appliances of
flesh-brushes and salt-baths to baffle any insidious ailment,--a strong,
hale, cheery man, who would have ranked by a score (judging from his
exterior) younger than the Doctor. In our time the clerical fraternity
are putting a somewhat wiser valuation upon those aids to firm muscle
and good digestion which forty years ago in New England their brethren
gave over contemptuously to men of the world. What fearful, pinching
dyspepsias, what weak, trembling knees and aching sides have been
carried into pulpits, and have been strained to the propagation of
spiritual doctrine, under the absurd belief that these bodies of ours
were not given us to be cherished! As if a Gabriel would not need clean
limbs and a firm hand in a grapple with the ministers of misrule!

Shall we look for a moment at the French home which Maverick is leaving?
A compact country-house of yellow stone upon a niche of the hills that
overlook the blue Bay of Lyons; a green arbor over the walk leading to
the door; clumps of pittosporum and of jessamine, with two or three
straggling fig-trees, within the inclosure; a billiard-room and
_salle-a-manger_ upon the ground-floor, and _au premier_ a _salon_,
opening, by its long, heavily draped windows, upon a balcony shielded
with striped awning. Here on many an evening, when the night wind comes
in from the sea, Maverick lounges sipping at his _demi-tasse_, whiffing
at a fragrant Havana, (imported to order,) and chatting with some friend
he has driven out from the stifling streets of Marse