It seemed to me to possess an unhuman equa 

 nimity and to breathe into one a serene helpless 

 ness. There was nothing to do but to submit. 

 I walked the floor in a brown study, coming back 

 to the window at intervals to see it it were turning 

 into rain, and to find that it was coming down as 

 thick and fast as ever. 



I must confess that I took it more easily than 

 my mood warranted ; and when, as Charlie had 

 predicted, we were snowed in up to the windows, 

 and the odorous smokiness of our cabin invited 

 me to sit down and become as snug as a bug in a 

 rus, and watch Charlie build railroad cars with 



O 



Montaigne and &quot; Robinson Crusoe &quot; and Jules 

 Verne, I could not help picturing what ought to 

 have been, if I could have directed Nature into 

 the proper path, and there was a Florentine maid 

 sewing in the rocker beside me. This sort of 

 reverie was invariably followed by a strong desire 

 to get out immediately and plunge into the world, 

 where I could make some glittering sensations do 

 service for the illusions that had been destroyed. 

 I did not undertake to disguise from myself 

 that I had made what we call on the street &quot; a 

 very bad break.&quot; It was rather humiliating to 

 acknowledge that I had been fooling myself to 



*. 



the top of my bent with a rustic hallucination. 

 But I did not become quite maudlin over it, and 

 stoutly insisted to myself that I would easily get 



* ^- 



over the matter, if I could only once return to the 

 habitual diversions and projects of a busy life. 

 That was easily and bravely said, no doubt, but 

 296 



