“O! how true!” I exclaimed with a rush of overflowing feeling.

That pleased him.  He smiled at me, and said—­“Stay here, my good friend; in a while I shall perhaps have time to tell you what I think about this.”  He pointed to the letter, which he then thrust into his pocket, and turned again to the company.  He offered his arm to a young lady; the other gentlemen addressed themselves to other fair ones; each found what suited him; and all proceeded toward the rose-blossomed mound.

I slid into the rear, without troubling any one, for no one troubled himself any further about me.  The company was excessively lively; there were dalliance and playfulness; trifles were sometimes discussed with an important tone, but oftener important matters with levity; and especially pleasantly flew the wit over absent friends and their circumstances.  I was too strange to understand much of all this; too anxious and introverted to take an interest in such riddles.

We had reached the rosary.  The lovely Fanny, the belle of the day, as it appeared, would, out of obstinacy, herself break off a blooming bough.  She wounded herself on a thorn, and as if from the dark roses, flowed the purple on her tender hand.  This circumstance put the whole party into a flutter.  English plaster was sought for.  A still, thin, lanky, longish, oldish man, who stood near, and whom I had not hitherto remarked, put his hand instantly into the close-lying breast-pocket of his old French gray taffetty coat; produced thence a little pocket-book; opened it; and presented to the lady, with a profound obeisance, the required article.  She took it without noticing the giver, and without thanks; the wound was bound up; and we went forward over the hill, from whose back the company could enjoy the wide prospect over the green labyrinth of the park to the boundless ocean.

The view was in reality vast and splendid.  A light point appeared on the horizon between the dark flood and the blue of the heaven.  “A telescope here!” cried John; and already, before the servants who appeared at the call were in motion, the gray man, modestly bowing, had thrust his hand into his coat-pocket, and drawn thence a beautiful Dollond and handed it to John.  Bringing it immediately to his eye, the latter informed the company that it was the ship which went out yesterday, and was detained in view of port by contrary winds.  The telescope passed from hand to hand, but not again into that of its owner.  I, however, gazed in wonder at the man, and could not conceive how the great machine had come out of the narrow pocket; but this seemed to have struck no one else, and nobody troubled himself any farther about the gray man than about myself.

Refreshments were handed round; the choicest fruits of every zone, in the costliest vessels.  Mr. John did the honors with an easy grace, and a second time addressed a word to me.  “Help yourself; you have not had the like at sea.”  I bowed, but he saw it not; he was already speaking with some one else.