But why do they come abroad?"

"Ah! that is the question that would puzzle
nineteen out of every twenty of us.  With a
panorama in Leicester-square and a guide-book
in a chimney-corner, we should know more of
the Tyrol than we'll ever acquire junketing
along in a hired coacli, and only eager not to pay
too much for one's 'Kalbsbraten' or 'Schwein
fleisch,' and yet here we come in shoals, — to
grumble and complain of all our self-imposed
miseries, and incessantly lament the comforts of
the land that we won't live in."

"Some of us come for health," said Loyd,
sorrowfully.

"And  was there ever such a blunder? Why,
the very vicissitudes of a continental climate are
more trying than any severity in our own.
Imagine the room we are now sitting in, of a
winter's evening, with a stove heated to ninety-
five, and the door opening every five minutes to
a draught of air eleven degrees below zero!
You pass out of this furnace to your bedroom,
by a stair and corridor like the Arctic regions,
to gain an uncarpeted room, with something
like a knife-tray for a bed, and a poultice of
feathers for a coverlet!"

"And for all that we like it, we long for it;
save, pinch, screw, and sacrifice Heaven knows
what of home enjoyment just for six weeks or
two months of it."

"Shall I tell you why? Just because Simpkins
has done it. Simpkins has been up the
Rhine and dined at the Cursaal at Ems, and
made his little debut at roulette at Wiesbaden,
and spoken his atrocious French at Frankfort,
and we won't consent to be less men of the
world than Simpkins; and though Simpkins
knows that it doesn't ' pay,' and I know that it
doesn't pay, we won't ' peach' either of us, just
for the pleasure of seeing you, and a score like
you, fall into the same blunder, experience the
same disasters, and incur the same disappointments
as ourselves."

"No. I don't agree with you; or, rather, I
won't agree with you. I am determined to enjoy
this holiday of mine to the utmost my health
will let me, and you shall not poison the pleasure
by that false philosophy which, affecting to
be deep, is only depreciatory."

"And the honourable gentleman resumed his
seat, as the newspapers say, amidst loud and
vociferous cheers, which lasted for several
minutes." This Calvert said as he drummed a
noisy applause upon the table, and made Loyd's
face glow with a blush of deep shame and confusion.

"I told you, the second day we travelled
together, and I tell you again now, Calvert,"
said he, falteringlv, " that we are nowise suited
to each other, and never could make good
travelling companions. You know far more of life
than I either do or wish to know. You see
things with an acute and piercing clearness
which I cannot attain to. You have no mind
for the sort of humble things which give
pleasure to a man simple as myself; and, lastly, I
don't like to say it, but I must, your means are
so much more ample than mine, that to associate
with you I must live in a style totally above
my pretensions. All these are confessions more
or less painful to make, but now that I have
made them, let me have the result, and say,
good-by— good-by."

There was an emotion in the last words that
more than compensated for what preceded them.
It was the genuine sorrow that loneliness ever
impresses on certain natures; but Calvert read
the sentiment as a tribute to himself, and hastily
said, " No, no, you are all wrong. The very
disparities you complain of are the bonds
between us. The differences in our temperament
are the resources by which the sphere of our
observation will be widened—my scepticism,
will be the corrector of your hopefulness—and,
as to means, take my word for it, nobody can
be harder up than I am, and if you'll only keep
the bag, and limit the outgoings, I'll submit to
any short-comings when you tell me they are
savings."

"Are you serious—downright in earnest in all
this?" asked Loyd.

"So serious, that I propose our bargain
should begin from this hour. We shall each of
us place ten Napoleons in that bag of yours.
You shall administer all outlay, and I bind
myself to follow implicitly all your behests, as
though I were a ward and you my guardian."

"I'm not very confident about the success of
the scheme. I see many difficulties already, and
there may be others that I cannot foresee; still,
I am willing to give it a trial."

"At last I realise one of my fondest
anticipations, which was to travel without the daily
recurring miseries of money reckoning."

"Don't take those cigars, they are supplied
by the waiter, and cost two groschen each, and
they sell for three groschen a dozen in the
Platz;" and, so saying, Loyd removed the plate
from before him in a quiet business-like way,
that promised well for the spirit in which his
trust would be exercised.

Calvert laughed as he laid down the cigar,
but his obedience ratified the pact between
them.

"When do we go from this?" asked he, in a
quiet and half-submissive tone.

"Oh, come, this is too much!" said Loyd. " I
undertook to be purser, but not pilot."

"Well, but I insist upon your assuming all
the cares of legislation. It is not alone that
I want not to think of the cash; but I want to
have no anxieties about the road we go, where
we halt, and when we move on. I want, for
once in my life, to indulge the glorious enjoyment
of perfect indolence—such another chance
will scarcely offer itself."

" Be it so. Whenever you like to rebel, I
shall be just as ready to abdicate. I'll go to
my room now and study the map, and by the
time you have finished your evening's stroll on
the bridge, I shall have made the plan of our
future wanderings."

"Agreed!" said Calvert. "I'm off to search
for some of those cheap cigars you spoke of."