to think that it is not the most enlightening
and knowledge-seeking method of going
through a country to keep one's eyes
constantly fixed on a book; and, therefore,
having read past a station or two, I tear
my attention away with a resolute wrench
from the enchanted island and the Caribs, to
light a waking-up cigar and look about me.

Returning after some whiffs and reflection
to the every day world again, I perceive that
I am seated next a dapper little man who has
just joined us from the small village at which
we last stopped. He evidently belongs to
one of the great middle classes of the country;
but to which class, it is not so easy to determine;
for any one more unlike a Briton of
similar condition it would be impossible to
imagine.

In age, he may be four or five and twenty.
He is small of stature, and his limbs are as
delicate as those of a young woman. He
has a spare black beard, and small rnoustachios.
The sides of his face are shaven. His
eyes are dark, and his complexion a pale olive;
so that I sit for some time musing whether
he may not have Spanish blood in his little
veins; reflecting also on the marked peculiarities
of race, which no time or circumstance
can, perhaps, wear wholly away.

If my small friend is farther remarkable
for anything, it is for a certain air
of propriety that decent poverty and careful
concealing of humble fortunes which
has something in it so strongly
attractive—I had almost said affecting. His
clothes are well made (though somewhat
scanty), and scrupulously brushed, his hair is
nicely cut, and his thin beard is prettily trimmed
into shape. He is dressed in a jaunty little
plum-coloured coat, thriftily turned and newly
braided at the worn edges, a black satin waistcoat,
and continuations of a neat clouded
grey. I subsequently ascertain that they are
new, and cost sixteen francs only two months
ago. For the rest my spruce neighbour wears
a set of gingerbread blue enamelled studs (of
pale washed-out Belgian jeweller's gold)
curious, as showing in some degree how very
much gold may be alloyed, and yet retain its
title by courtesy, and how very thinly it may
be beaten. His shirt is coarse in texture,
but so pricked and fretted, so pleated and
ironed by housewifely hands as to look fine,
at a little distance. His boots are
unexceptionable, and his hat is vigorously brushed
and worn on one side. His Belgian taste
(like that of most simple quiet folk), for flaming
colours, breaks out in a violent red pocket-
handkerchief, which he flourishes occasionally,
not without an air of pride and satisfaction
in his personal appearance. In constitutional
temperament he is evidently phlegmatic
enough, as the inhabitants of most moist
climates really are; but he is as evidently
bitten with that mania for all things French,
which occasions such surprising and ridiculous
effects in Belgium, as though a frog
would imitate a butterfly. He therefore
thinks it necessary to speak in an excited
manner, to use much gesticulation, and to
affect the air of a gay swaggering young
ruffler, so that he reminds me rather of the
quiet man who becomes a hero against his
will in the charming French comedy of La
Bataille des Dames.

We soon get into conversation. The
Belgians being remarkably friendly and communicative
in their manners, I have nothing to do
but to sit still and hear my little friend talk
to acquire any information about him which
may interest me. The little man's talk, too,
really is interesting to a stranger, and a student
of manners. Listening, without effort,
also suits the lazy languor of the day. He
shall tell the reader, therefore, his story, as
he told it to me.

"My father was a huissier, or what
melodramatic writers call a myrmidon of the law.
It is not an agreeable profession. Huissiers
are not readily received in society. People
are ashamed so ask them to their houses, lest
it should appear they carne on legal business.
Formerly—that is, about twenty years ago—
my father sometimes made five thousand, or
six thousand francs a-year by his profession,
People were then very litigious and
extravagant. The property of whole villages and
districts changed hands with what would now
appear extraordinary rapidity. There was
a great deal of drinking and merry-making;
so that most folks lived beyond their means,
and got into trouble. They spent more and
earned less than now. My father, of course,
profited by this state of things. He lived in
a rural district, and he was usually on horseback
from daylight till dark. He was thus
enabled to bring up a large family (there
were eleven of us), in credit and respectability:
for that money which others squandered
away, was thriftily employed when it
fell into his hands, and became a blessing to
us all. Latterly, however—that is, within these
last ten years—matters have much altered,
People have grown more careful and well
conducted. My father's yearly gains gradually
diminished to one-third of their former
value, and last year he earned only two
thousand francs. There are very few law-
suits, now-a-days, in Belgium, and my father
had enough to do to bear his reverse of fortune.
He fell, indeed, into bad health; and,
some months since, not being able to ride as
well as he used to do (for he is nearly
seventy), he was thrown from his pony, and
hurt severely. He resigned his employment;
and, though he had been forty years in it,
he has no retiring allowance. The huissiers
have formed no fund among themselves
for this purpose, and the state does not
interfere. I wanted to succeed my father;
but, as I am not yet twenty-five years old
(the eligible age), his place was given to an
elder brother of mine, who still holds it. Its
value, however, continues visibly to diminish;