he was a Cambridge man, or, at least, was intimately
acquainted with Cambridge life and thought; and this was another bond
between us. His Radicalism was not very formidable; it amounted to
little more, indeed, than a turn for humorous paradox. Our discussion
reminded me of Fuller's description of the wit-combats between Ben
Jonson and Shakespeare at the "Mermaid." I was the Spanish galleon, my
Fascinating Friend was the English man-of-war, ready "to take advantage
of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention." An hour sped
away delightfully, the only thing I did not greatly enjoy being the
cigarette, which seemed to me no better than many I had smoked before.

"What do you think of my cigarettes?" he said, as I threw away the
stump.

I felt that a blunt expression of opinion would be in bad taste after
his generosity in offering an utter stranger the best he had.
"Exquisite!" I answered.

"I thought you would say so," he replied, gravely. "Have another!"

"Let me try one of your common ones," I said.

"No, you shan't!" he replied, closing the case with a sudden snap, which
endangered my fingers, but softening the _brusquerie_ of the proceeding
by one of his enthralling smiles; then he added, using one of the odd
idioms which gave his speech a peculiar piquancy, "I don't palm off upon
my friends what I have of second best." He re-opened the case and held
it out to me. To have refused would have been to confess that I did not
appreciate his "gems" as he called them. I smoked another, in which I
still failed to find any unusual fragrance; but the aroma of my
new-found friend's whole personality was so keen and subtle, that it may
have deadened my nerves to any more material sensation.

We lay talking until the pink flush of evening spread along the horizon,
and in it Corsica, invisible before, seemed to body itself forth from
nothingness like an island of phantom peaks and headlands. Then we rose,
and, in the quickly gathering dusk, took our way down among the
olive-yards, and through the orange-gardens to Monte Carlo.

II

My acquaintance with my Fascinating Friend lasted little more than
forty-eight hours, but during that time we were inseparable. He was not
at my hotel, but on that first evening I persuaded him to dine with me,
and soon after breakfast on the following morning I went in search of
him; I was at the Russie, he at the Hotel de Paris. I found him smoking
in the veranda, and at a