I should n't want to go out to take a walk — not even
to go to church — if my house was on fire. My firm
is not doing the business it was; it's like a sick
child; it wants nursing. What I wanted the doc-
tors to do was to fix me up, so that I could go on at
home. I 'd have taken anything they 'd have given
me, and as many times a day. I wanted to be right




THE PENSION BE A UREPA S. 151

there ; I had my reasons ; I have them stilL But I
came off, all the same," said my friend, with a melan-
choly smile.
I was a great deal younger than he, but there was
something so simple and communicative in his tone,
so expressive of a desire to fraternize, and so exempt
from any theory of human differences, that I quite
forgot his seniority, and found myself offering him
paternal advice. " Don't think about all that," said
I. " Simply enjoy yourself, amuse yourself, get welL
Travel about and see Europe. At the end of a year,
by the time you are ready to go home, things will
have improved over there, and you will be quite well
and happy."

My friend laid his hand on my knee ; he looked at
me for some moments, and I thought he was going to
say, " You are very young ! " But he said pres-
ently, " You have got used to Europe, any way ! **



III.
