"I heard from De Montaigne the other day," said Ernest, just as they were retiring for the night, "and his letter decides my movements. If you will accept me, then, as a travelling companion, I will go with you to Paris. Have you made up your mind to leave Burleigh on Saturday?"
"Yes; that gives us a day to recover from Lord Raby's ball. I am so delighted at your offer! We need only stay a day or so in town. The excursion will do you good,—-your spirits, my dear Ernest, seem more dejected than when you first returned to England: you live too much alone here; you will enjoy Burleigh more on your return. And perhaps then you will open the old house a little more to the neighbourhood, and to your friends. They expect it: you are looked to for the county."
"I have done with politics, and sicken but for peace."
"Pick up a wife in Paris, and you will then know that peace is an impossible possession," said the old bachelor, laughing.
BOOK V.
"FOOLS blind to truth; nor know their erring soul
How much the half is better than the whole."
—HESIOD: Op. et Dies, 40.
CHAPTER I.
Do as the Heavens have done; forget your evil;
With them, forgive yourself.—The Winter's Tale.