'Ah! but the Mediterranean!' exclaimed Coningsby. 'What would I not give
to see Athens!'

'I have seen it,' said the stranger, slightly shrugging his shoulders;'
and more wonderful things. Phantoms and spectres! The Age of Ruins is
past. Have you seen Manchester?'

'I have seen nothing,' said Coningsby; 'this is my first wandering. I am
about to visit a friend who lives in this county, and I have sent on my
baggage as I could. For myself, I determined to trust to a less common-
place conveyance.'

'And seek adventures,' said the stranger, smiling, 'Well, according to
Cervantes, they should begin in an inn.'

'I fear that the age of adventures is past, as well as that of ruins,'
replied Coningsby.

'Adventures are to the adventurous,' said the stranger.

At this moment a pretty serving-maid entered the room. She laid the dapper
cloth and arranged the table with a self-possession quite admirable. She
seemed unconscious that any being was in the chamber except herself, or
that there were any other duties to perform in life beyond filling a
saltcellar or folding a napkin.

'She does not even look at us,' said Coningsby, when she had quitted the
room; 'and I dare say is only a prude.'

'She is calm,' said the stranger, 'because she is mistress of her subject;