Experiences like this teach prudence.So when our excellent friend M.Lerins sends me a present of a beautiful soul, it is natural that I should unpack it with caution, and that before I install this beautiful soul in my house, I should seek to know what is inside of it.A beautiful soul!" he repeated, in a less ironical but harsher tone, "by dint of pondering upon it, I divine to be a soul which has a passion for the trumpery of sentiment.In this case, sir, suffer me to give you a piece of advice.Madame Leminof had a great fancy for Chinese ornaments, and she filled her parlors with them.Unfortunately, I am a little brusque, and it happened more than once that I overturned her tables laden with porcelain and other gewgaws.You can judge how well she liked it! My dear sir, be prudent, shut up your Chinese ornaments carefully in your closets, and carry the keys.""I thank you for the advice," answered Gilbert gently; "but I am distressed to see that you have received a very false idea of me.
Will you permit me to describe myself as I am?""I have no objection," said he.
"To begin then 'I am not a beautiful soul,' I am simply a good soul, or if you like it better, an honest fellow who takes things as they come and men as they are; who prides himself upon nothing, pretends to nothing, and who cares not a straw what others think of him.I do not deny that in my early youth I was subject, like others, to what a man of wit has called 'the witchery of nonsense;'
but I have recovered from it entirely.I have found in life a morose and rather brutal teacher, who has taught me the art of living by severe discipline; so whatever of the romantic was in me has taken refuge in my brains, and my heart has become the most reasonable of all hearts.If I had the good fortune to be at the same time an artist and rich, I should take life as a play; but being neither the one nor the other I treat it as a matter of business."M.Leminof commenced his walk again, and in passing Gilbert, gave him a look at once haughty and caressing, such as a huge mastiff would cast upon a spaniel, who fearing nothing, would approach his great-toothed majesty familiarly and offer to play with him.He growls loudly, but feels no anger.There is something in the eye of a spaniel which forces the big dogs to take their familiarity in good part.
