"Let us not part here; come up to the inn
and dine with me," said I, affecting his own
blunt and abrupt manner.

"Why should I dine with you?" asked he,
roughly.

I can't exactly say," stammered I, "except
out of good-fellowship, just as, for instance, I
accepted your invitation t'other morning to
breakfast."

"Ah, yes, to be sure, so you did. Well, I'll
come. We shall be all alone, I suppose?"

"Quite alone."

"All right.for I have no coat but this one!" and
he looked down at the coarse sleeve as he spoke,
with a strange and sad smile, and then waving
his hand in token of farewell, he said, "I'll
join you in half an hour," and disappeared up
the lane.

I have already owned that I did not like this
man; he had a certain short abrupt way that
repelled me at every moment. When he differed
in opinion with me, he was not satisfied to record
his dissent, but he must set about demolishing
my conviction, and this sort of intolerance
pervaded all he said. There was, too, that business-
like, practical tone about him, that jars fearfully
on the sensitive fibre of the idler's nature.

It was exactly in proportion as his society
was distasteful to me, that I felt a species of
pride in associating with him, as though to say, "I
am not one of those who must be fawned on and
flattered. I am of a healthier and manlier stamp;
I can afford to hear my judgments arraigned, and
my opinions opposed. And in this humour I
ascended the stairs of the hotel, and entered the
room where our table was already laid out.

To compensate, so far as they could, for the
rude reception of the day before, they had given
me now the "grand apartment" of the inn. which,
by a long balcony, looked over the lake, and that
fine mountain range that leads to the Splugen
pass. A beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers
ornamented the centre of the small dinner-table,
tastily decked with Bohemian glass, and napkins
with lace borders. I rather liked this little
display of elegance. It was a sort of ally on my side
against the utilitarian plainness of my guest.

As I walked up and down the room, awaiting
his arrival, I could not help a sigh, and a very
deep one too, over the thought of what had been
my enjoyment that moment if my guest had
one of a different temperament—a man
willing to take me on my own showing, and
ready to accept any version I should like to give
of myself. How gracefully, how charmingly I
could have played the host to such a man!
What vigour would it have imparted to my
imagination—what brilliancy to my fancy! With
what a princely grace might I have dispensed
my hospitalities, as though such occasions were
the daily habit of my life; whereas a dinner
with Harper would be nothing more or less
than an airing with a "slave in the chariot"—
a perpetual reminder, like the face of a poor
relation, that my lot was cast in an humble sphere,
and it was no use trying to disguise it.

"What's all this for?" said Harpar's harsh
voice, as he entered the room. "Why didn't
you order our mutton-chop below stairs in the
common room, and not a banquet in this fashion?
You must be well aware I couldn't do this sort
of thing by you. Why then have you attempted
it with me?"

"I have always thought it was a host's
prerogative," said I, meekly, "to be the arbiter of
his own entertainment."

"So it might where he was the arbiter of his
purse, but you know well enough neither you
nor I have any pretension to these costly ways,
anil they have this disadvantage, that they make
all intercourse stilted and unnatural. If you
and I had to sit down to table, dressed in court
suits, with wigs and bags, ain't it likely we'd
be easy and cordial together? Well, this is
precisely the same."

"I am really sorry," said I, with a forced
appearance of courtesy, "to have incurred so severe
a lesson, but you must allow me this one transgression
before I begin to profit by it." And so
saying, I rang the bell and ordered dinner.

Harpar made no reply, but walked the room,
with his hands deep in his pockets, humming a
tune to himself as he went.

At last we sat down at table; everything
was excellent and admirably served, but we ate
on in silence, not a syllable exchanged between
us. As the dessert appeared I tried to open
conversation. I affected to seem easy and
unconcerned, but the cold half stern look of my
companion repelled all my attempts, and I sat very
sad and much discouraged sipping my wine.

"May I order some brandy-and-water? I like
it better than these French wines," asked he,
abruptly; and, as I arose to ring for it, he added,
"and you'll not object to my having a pipe of
strong Cavendish?" And therewith he produced
a leather bag and a very much smoked
meerschaum, short and ungainly as his own figure.
As he thrust his hand into the pouch, a small
boat, about the size of a lady's thimble, rolled
out from amidst the tobacco, and he quickly
took it and placed it in his waistcoat-pocket—
the act being done with a sort of hurry that
with a man of less self-possession might have
perhaps evinced confusion.

"You fancy you've seen something, don't
you?" said he, with a defiant laugh. "I'd
wager a five-pound note, if I had one, that you
think at this moment you have made a great
discovery. Well, there it is, make much of it!" As
he spoke, he produced the little boat and laid it
down before me. I own that this speech and
the act convinced me that he was insane; I was
aware that intense suspectfulness is the great
characteristic of madness, and everything tended
to show that he was deranged.

Rather to conceal what was passing in my
own mind than out of any curiosity, I took up
the little toy to examine it. It was beautifully
made, and finished with a most perfect neatness;
the only thing I could not understand being
four small holes on each side of the keel,
fastened by four little plugs.

"What are these for?" asked I.