Finally we were off.  The omnibus took our traps, whilst we walked up Jacob’s Ladder.  We let our gaze linger and rest upon all the old familiar points; the quaint gables, the dormer windows in the red, red roofs; the latticed panes, behind which life must seem less sad and sorrowful than it really is; the antiquarian and his old curiosities.  He knew we were leaving, and was on the look-out for us.  The pale, spiritual face stood out conspicuously amidst its surroundings:  the spiritual strangely contrasting with the material.  The eyes looked into ours with their sad, dreamy, far-away gaze, so full of the pain and suffering of life.  Behind him stood his Adonis of a son, the flush of genius making the countenance yet more beautiful.  Perched on his shoulder was the cherub.  He held out his arms as soon as he saw us, and seemed quite ready to go forth with us and, as Catherine would have said, see the world.  Some of the old Louis Quatorze furniture had been transferred from the seclusion of the monastery to the glitter of the outer world, and here found a temporary repose.

“You are leaving,” said the old antiquarian sadly—­but his tones were always sad.  “I am sorry.  I am always sorry when anyone leaves who possesses the true artistic temperament.  The town feels more deserted.  There are so many things around us that appeal only to the few.  But you have made quite a long stay amongst us; people generally come one day and depart the next.  And now you are bound for Quimper?”

“Yes.  What shall we find there?”

“Much that is interesting; the loveliest church in Brittany; many quaint and curious houses and perspectives; some things that are better than Morlaix, but nothing better than our Grande Rue.  Brittany has nothing better than that in its way; nothing so good.  Du reste, comparisons should never be made.  But you will find few antiquities in Quimper—­and no old antiquarian,” he added with a quiet smile.

“I am under the impression,” said H.C., a sensitive flush mantling to his poetical and expressive eyes, “that some of these good people are mistaking us for dealers in curiosities, and fancy that this is our object in travelling.”

[Illustration:  QUIMPER.]

“What would your aunt, Lady Maria, say to her nephew’s being so degraded?” we asked.

“She would diminish her supply of crystallised violets,” he returned.  “You know she lives by weight—­Apothecaries’ Weight—­and measures everything she takes.  She would put a few grains less into the balance, and incense her rooms.”

All the same, I thought him mistaken, and asked the old antiquarian the plain question.  He smiled; the nearest approach we ever saw him give to a laugh.

“No, sirs,” he replied; “I have not so far erred.  We do not make those mistakes.  Besides, you have too much love and veneration for the beautiful.  Indeed we know with whom we have to deal, and in our little way possess a knowledge of the world.”