rable qualities, of that sort which make up a gentleman,
than any other that I have met with. Polished, yet natural, frank, open,
and straightforward, yet with a delicate feeling for the sensitiveness
of his companions; of excellent temper and warm heart; well acquainted
with the world, with a keen faculty of observation, which he has had
many opportunities of exercising, and never varying from a code of honor
and principle which is really nice and rigid in its way. There is a sort
or philosophy developing itself in him which will not impossibly cause
him to settle down in this or some other equally singular course of
life. He seems almost to have made up his mind never to be married,
which I wonder at; for he has strong affections, and is fond both of
women and children.

The little Frenchman impresses me very strongly, too,--so lonely as he
is here, struggling against the world, with bitter feelings in his
breast, and yet talking with the vivacity and gayety of his nation;
making this his home from darkness to daylight, and enjoying here what
little domestic comfort and confidence there is for him; and then going
about all the livelong day, teaching French to blockheads who sneer at
him, and returning at about ten o'clock in the evening (for I was wrong
in saying he supped here,--he eats no supper) to his solitary room and
bed. Before retiring, he goes to B----'s bedside, and, if he finds him
awake, stands talking French, expressing his dislike of the
Americans,--_"Je hais, je hais les Yankees!"_--thus giving vent to the
stifled bitterness of the whole day. In the morning I hear him getting
up early, at sunrise or before, humming to himself, scuffling about his
chamber with his thick boots, and at last taking his departure for a
solitary ramble till breakfast. Then he comes in, cheerful and vivacious
enough, eats pretty heartily, and is off again, singing French
_chansons_ as he goes down the gravel-walk. The poor fellow has nobody
to sympathize with him but B----, and thus a singular connection is
established between two utterly different characters.

Then here is myself, who am likewise a queer character in my way, and
have come to spend a week or two with my friend of half a lifetime,--the
longest space, probably, that we are ever destined to spend together;
for Fate seems preparing changes for both of us. My circumstances, at
least, cannot long continue as they are and have been; and B----, too,
stands between hi