past the Baden flower-beds, he slowly rummaged it over. He had seen and
done a great deal, enjoyed and observed a great deal; he felt older,
and yet he felt younger too. He remembered Mr. Babcock and his desire
to form conclusions, and he remembered also that he had profited very
little by his friend's exhortation to cultivate the same respectable
habit. Could he not scrape together a few conclusions? Baden-Baden
was the prettiest place he had seen yet, and orchestral music in the
evening, under the stars, was decidedly a great institution. This was
one of his conclusions! But he went on to reflect that he had done very
wisely to pull up stakes and come abroad; this seeing of the world was
a very interesting thing. He had learned a great deal; he couldn't say
just what, but he had it there under his hat-band. He had done what he
wanted; he had seen the great things, and he had given his mind a chance
to "improve," if it would. He cheerfully believed that it had improved.
Yes, this seeing of the world was very pleasant, and he would willingly
do a little more of it. Thirty-six years old as he was, he had a
handsome stretch of life before him yet, and he need not begin to
count his weeks. Where should he take the world next? I have said he
remembered the eyes of the lady whom he had found standing in Mrs.
Tristram's drawing-room; four months had elapsed, and he had not
forgotten them yet. He had looked--he had made a point of looking--into
a great many other eyes in the interval, but the only ones he thought
of now were Madame de Cintre's. If he wanted to see more of the world,
should he find it in Madame de Cintre's eyes? He would certainly find
something there, call it this world or the next. Throughout these rather
formless meditations he sometimes thought of his past life and the long
array of years (they had begun so early) during which he had had nothing
in his head but "enterprise." They seemed far away now, for his present
attitude was more than a holiday, it was almost a rupture. He had told
Tristram that the pendulum was swinging back and it appeared that the