"How little it requires to make a journey pleasant, when the companionsare our friends!" said Gertrude, as they sailed along. "Nothing can beduller than these banks, nothing more delightful than this voyage."
"Yet what tries the affections of people for each other so severely asa journey together?" said Vane. "That perpetual companionship from whichthere is no escaping; that confinement, in all our moments of ill-humourand listlessness, with persons who want us to look amused--ah, it is asevere ordeal for friendship to pass through! A post-chaise must havejolted many an intimacy to death."
"You speak feelingly, dear father," said Gertrude, laughing; "and, Isuspect, with a slight desire to be sarcastic upon us. Yet, seriously,I should think that travel must be like life, and that good persons mustbe always agreeable companions to each other."
"Good persons, my Gertrude!" answered Vane, with a smile. "Alas! Ifear the good weary each other quite as much as the bad. What sayyou, Trevylyan,--would Virtue be a pleasant companion from Paristo Petersburg? Ah, I see you intend to be on Gertrude's side of thequestion. Well now, if I tell you a story, since stories are so much thefashion with you, in which you shall find that the Virtues themselvesactually made the experiment of a tour, will you promise to attend tothe moral?"
"Oh, dear father, anything for a story," cried Gertrude; "especiallyfrom you, who have not told us one all the way. Come, listen, Albert;nay, listen to your new rival."
And, pleased to see the vivacity of the invalid, Vane began asfollows:--
The Pilgrims of the Rhine Page 28