Iona looked at the young trees thoughtfully.
“I would like to earn a leaf,” she said.
CHAPTER XXVII.
While they were speaking, three visitors whom they did not expect were approaching San Salvador.
A German, a Frenchman, and an Italian, who had known each other many years, meeting occasionally in the society of different European capitals, had met in Paris that spring, and weary of a round of pleasures which led to nothing but weariness, had started off on a long rambling journey.
They made no plans except to go to places they had heard but little of, and to be ready to stop at a moment’s notice.
It was the German who had discovered that their pleasures led to weariness alone; but his friends readily agreed with him.
“I am inclined to think,” said the Italian, “that the only refuge of civilization is in barbarism.”
“Or in a truer civilization,” said the German.
“Or in a more robust physical health,” said the Frenchman. “So many of our moral impressions proceed from the stomach, or the nerves.”