“No; you must bear in mind that young Philipson had passed the preceding five years of his life amongst demi-savages, whose manners and customs he had, to a certain extent, necessarily contracted.  In some countries, what we call crimes are only regarded as peccadillos.  In France, for example, till very lately, there existed what was called the law of combette, by right of which pardon might be obtained for any misdeed on payment of a certain sum of money.  There was a fixed price for every imaginable crime.  A man might consequently be a Blue Beard if he liked, it was only necessary to consult the tariff in the first instance, and see to what extent his means would enable him to indulge his fancy for horrors.”

“On quitting the house,” continued Wolston, “Herbert Philipson bent his way to the shore, and shortly after was observed to plunge into the sea.”

“So much the better,” exclaimed Sophia; “it saved his friends a more dreadful spectacle.”

“The weather being fine and the water warm, Herbert enjoyed his bath immensely; he then returned to his hotel, went early to bed, and slept soundly till next morning.”

“The wretch!” cried Sophia, “to sleep soundly after assassinating his old playfellow, who had suffered so much on his account.”

“It is pretty certain,” continued Wolston, “that, if Philipson had been left entirely to himself, he would always have shown the same degree of moderation he had hitherto displayed.”

“Oh, yes, moderation!” said Sophia.

“But his friends began to prate to him about the shameful way he had been jilted by Cecilia, and, by constantly reiterating the same thing, they at last succeeded in persuading him that he was an ill-used man.  His self-esteem being roused by this silly chatter, he began to affect a ridiculous desolation, and to perpetrate all manner of outrageous extravagances.”

“Bad friends,” remarked Willis, “are like sinking ships; they drag you down to their own level.”

“The first absurd thing he did was to purchase a yacht, and when a storm arose that forced the hardy fishermen to take shelter in port, he went out to sea, and it is quite a miracle that he escaped drowning.  Then, if there were a doubtful scheme afloat, he was sure to take shares in it.  Nothing delighted him more than to go up in a balloon; he would have gladly swung himself on the car outside if the proprietor had allowed him.”

“I have often seen balloons in the air,” remarked Willis, “but I could never make out their dead reckoning.”

“A balloon,” replied Ernest, “is nothing more than an artificial cloud, and its power of ascension depends upon the volume of air it displaces.

“Very good, Master Ernest, so far as the balloon itself is concerned; but then there is the weight of the car, passengers, provisions, and apparatus to account for.”

“Hydrogen gas, used in the inflation of balloons, is forty times lighter than air.  If a balloon is made large enough, the weight of the car and all that it contains, added to that of the gas, will fall considerably short of the weight of the air displaced by the machine.”