102 WOLF-HUNTING. 



CHAPTER X. 



HAD it not been for the Baron de Keryfan's kindness to me 

 at Gourin, I scarcely know how I could have endured, even 

 for hunting's sake, the filth and discomfort of that wretched 

 little town. Good company, it is true, will make some amends 

 for such evils ; but the misery of being forced into bad company 

 the moment you seek the retirement of your chamber, hoping 

 for rest but finding none, is indescribable. If the minor evils 

 of life make up the great mass of human suffering, these at 

 least to which I allude form no insignificant ingredients in the 

 bolus we are all compelled to swallow, first or last. This is 

 not an agreeable subject to dwell upon ; yet I cannot resist the 

 opportunity it gives me to relate an anecdote I once heard 

 from a country gentleman. He had taken expensive apartments- 

 in Park Street during the season of the International Exhibition 

 in 1851, and had brought his family with him to enjoy the 

 wondrously attractive novelties congregated therein. The very 

 first night of his occupation, however, gave him sore proof that 

 a troublesome tenantry were already in full pre-occupation of 

 the beds. So the next morning, summoning the landlady to 

 his presence, he bitterly complained of his disturbed rest, and 

 announced his intention of not remaining another day in the 

 house. 



" But you've taken the apartments, sir, for four months/' was- 



