The sadness which consumed Oswald would have opposed fewer obstacles to the pleasure which he could have derived from Italy than the gaiety of Count d’Erfeuil, the sorrows of a sensitive mind will blend with the contemplation of nature and the enjoyment of the fine arts; but frivolity, in whatever form it presents itself, deprives attention of its force, thought of its originality, and sentiment of its profundity.  One of the singular effects of this frivolity was to inspire Lord Nelville with a great deal of timidity in his intercourse with Count d’Erfeuil:  embarrassment is nearly always on the side of him whose character is the more serious.  Mental levity imposes upon the mind habitually disposed to meditation, and he who proclaims himself happy, appears wiser than he who suffers.

The Count d’Erfeuil was mild, obliging, and easy in every thing; serious only in self love, and worthy of being regarded as he regarded others; that is to say, as a good companion of pleasures and of perils; but he had no idea whatever of sharing sorrows:  he was wearied to death with the melancholy of Oswald, and, as much from goodness of heart as from taste, was desirous of dissipating it.

“What is it you find wanting?” said he to him often; “are you not young, rich, and if you choose, in good health? for you are only ill because you are sad.  For my part I have lost my fortune, my existence:  I know not in fact what will become of me; nevertheless I enjoy life as if I possessed all the prosperity that earth can afford.”  “You are endowed with a courage as rare as it is honourable,” replied Lord Nelville; “but the reverses which you have experienced are less injurious in their consequences than the grief which preys upon the heart.”  “The grief which preys upon the heart,” cried the Count d’Erfeuil; “Oh! it is true, that is the most cruel of all;—­but—­but yet we should console ourselves under it; for a sensible man ought to drive away from his soul every thing that can neither be useful to others nor to himself.  Are we not here below to be useful first and happy afterwards?  My dear Nelville let us hold to that.”

What the Count d’Erfeuil said was reasonable, according to the general import of the word, for it savoured a good deal of what is usually called common sense:  passionate characters are much more capable of folly than cool and superficial ones; but so far was the Count d’Erfeuil’s mode of feeling from exciting the confidence of Lord Nelville that he would gladly have convinced him he was the most happy of men in order to avoid the pain which his consolation gave him.