154 



ON FRESH AIR. 



" The softest blush that Nature spreads, 

 Gave colour to her cheek : " 



or, on the contrary, the bed might have 

 been occupied by a rough-skinned, pimpled 

 victim to turtle soup and Curacjoa. He had 

 been nearly a month at Harrowgate without 

 benefit, and was on his way to the Continent, 

 with his medical adviser, to try what the spas 

 of Germany would do for him. 



A person, on whose veracity I could depend, 

 and who seemed to have scrutinised the general 

 state of dormitories with a considerable degree 

 of attention, once told me that he had not 

 passed a single hour in bed for fourteen years. 

 He said he was his own master in that respect, 

 and could suit himself as he thought fit. He 

 added that his aversion to enter a strange bed 

 was extreme. He did not know who had been 

 there before him, or what impurities might be 

 lurking in the region of the feather bed, or 

 whether it had been aired by Phoebus or by 

 Bacchus ; and that the possibility of getting 

 into a damp bed acted upon his nerves more 

 terribly than did the operation of Sir Robert 

 Peel's income tax. 



" And how do you manage," said I, " without 



