in envious sympathy. How he longed to travel! he told me. How he
longed to be somewhere else, and see the round world before he went into
the grave! "Here I am," said he. "I drive to the station. Well. And then
I drive back again to the hotel. And so on every day, and all the week
round. My God, is that life?" I could not say I thought it was--for him.
He pressed me to tell him where I had been, and where I hoped to go; and
as he listened, I declare the fellow sighed. Might not this have been a
brave African traveller, or gone to the Indies after Drake? But it is an
evil age for the gypsily inclined among men. He who can sit squarest on
a three-legged stool, he it is who has the wealth and glory.

I wonder if my friend is still driving the omnibus for the _Grand Cerf_?
Not very likely, I believe; for I think he was on the eve of mutiny when
we passed through, and perhaps our passage determined him for good.
Better a thousand times that he should be a tramp, and mend pots and
pans by the wayside, and sleep under trees, and see the dawn and the
sunset every day above a new horizon. I think I hear you say that it is
a respectable position to drive an omnibus? Very well. What right has
he, who likes it not, to keep those who would like it dearly out of this
respectable position? Suppose a dish were not to my taste, and you told
me that it was a favourite amongst the rest of the company, what should
I conclude from that? Not to finish the dish against my stomach, I
suppose.

Respectability is a very good thing in its way, but it does not rise
superior to all considerations. I would not for a moment venture to hint
that it was a matter of taste; but I think I will go as far as this:
that if a position is admittedly unkind, uncomfortable, unnecessary, and
superfluously useless, although it were as respectable as the Church of
England, the sooner a man is out of it, the better for himself, and all
concerned.

ON THE SAMBRE CANALISED

TO QUARTES

About three in the afternoon the whole establishment of the _Grand Cerf_
accompanied us to the water's edge. The man of the omnibus was there
with haggard eyes. Poor cage-bird! Do I not remember the time when I
myself haunted the station, to watch train after train carry its
complement of freemen into the night, and read the names of distant
places on the time-bills with indescribable longings?

We were not clear of the fortifications before the rain began. The wind
was c