this singular
man. Here was a nature rare as it was powerful; distinguished by all the
finest and noblest qualities vouchsafed to mankind. But we wished him to
take his own way, utter his own thoughts, not disturbed by remark or
turned aside by suggestion.

He rose for a moment, replenished the cups, and went on with his
narrative.

"I have not asked you to join me to-night to read you a lesson," he
continued. "In reviewing my past life, I find it full of incident and
action. But it has none of those startling dramas and strange
coincidences, none of those high achievements or fatal mistakes, which
occasionally make biographies a solemn warning to some or a pillar of
fire to others. I have brought you here simply for the pleasure of
spending an evening with you. If I beguiled you at this late hour under
any other impression I am guilty of false pretences. But late though it
be it is still evening to me, to whom all hours are alike. For a whole
week at a time I have slept an hour in the twenty-four in my arm-chair,
and found this sufficient rest. We give too much time to sleep. Like
everything else it is a habit. The day will come soon enough for the
folding of the hands. At any time I can turn night into day, and feel no
sense of fatigue or loss of power. Nature never takes her revenge by
turning day into night. I cannot remember the time when the daylight
hours caught me napping.

"So then, for the pleasure of your company, and that we may become
better acquainted, I have persuaded you to join me; not that I have much
to tell you that can be useful or instructive. And yet it is said that
the record of every life is a lesson. But all this you do not require. I
was presumptuous enough at mid-day to read you a homily of which black
coffee was the text and strong waters were the application. It was done
partly from the impulsiveness of my nature which has carried me into a
thousand-and-one unpremeditated scenes and circumstances; partly that
my heart warmed towards you and I thought it a surer introduction to a
better acquaintance than the usual topic of the weather. Throughout my
life of more than sixty years, from the day I was able to observe and
reflect I have been a student of human nature. You see even my rashness
did not mislead me. I was not rebuked. On the contrary, your heart
immediately responded to the singular and presuming old man."

He called himself old, but in reality, though six decades had rolled
ov