hought
after all he wouldn't go to Sicily. The two men had been dining together
after a day spent by the latter in ranging about the Campagna. They had
left the table, and Warburton, before the chimney, was lighting a cigar,
which he instantly removed from his lips.

"Won't go to Sicily? Where then will you go?"

"Well, I guess I won't go anywhere," said Ralph, from the sofa, all
shamelessly.

"Do you mean you'll return to England?"

"Oh dear no; I'll stay in Rome."

"Rome won't do for you. Rome's not warm enough."

"It will have to do. I'll make it do. See how well I've been."

Lord Warburton looked at him a while, puffing a cigar and as if trying
to see it. "You've been better than you were on the journey, certainly.
I wonder how you lived through that. But I don't understand your
condition. I recommend you to try Sicily."

"I can't try," said poor Ralph. "I've done trying. I can't move further.
I can't face that journey. Fancy me between Scylla and Charybdis! I
don't want to die on the Sicilian plains--to be snatched away, like
Proserpine in the same locality, to the Plutonian shades."

"What the deuce then did you come for?" his lordship enquired.

"Because the idea took me. I see it won't do. It really doesn't
matter where I am now. I've exhausted all remedies, I've swallowed
all climates. As I'm here I'll stay. I haven't a single cousin in
Sicily--much less a married one."

"Your cousin's certainly an inducement. But what does the doctor say?"

"I haven't asked him, and I don't care a fig. If I die here Mrs. Osmond
will bury me. But I shall not die here."

"I hope not." Lord Warburton continued to smoke reflectively. "Well,
I must say," he resumed, "for myself I'm very glad you don't insist on
Sicily. I had a horror of that journey."

"Ah, but for you it needn't have mattered. I had no idea of dragging you
in my train."

"I certainly didn't mean to let you go alone."

"My dear Warburton, I never expected you to come further than this,"
Ralph cried.

"I should have gone with you and seen you settled," said Lord Warburton.

"You're a very good Christian. You're a very kind man."

"Then I should have come back here."

"And then you'd have gone to England."

"No, no; I should have stayed."

"Well," said Ralph, "if that's what we are both up to, I don't see where
Sicily comes in!"

His companion was silent; he sat staring at the fire. At last, looking
up, "I say, tell me this," he broke ou