former part of his conversation,
»I love to sit, either at noon, when the alcove affords me shelter from the
heat, or in the evening, when the sun's beams are dying on the broad face of the
Loire - here, in the words of your great poet, whom, Frenchman as I am, I am
more intimately acquainted with than most Englishmen, I love to rest myself,
 
                  Showing the code of sweet and bitter fancy.«
 
Against this various reading of a well-known passage in Shakespeare I took care
to offer no protest; for I suspect Shakespeare would have suffered in the
opinion of so delicate a judge as the Marquis, had I proved his having written
»chewing the cud,« according to all other authorities. Besides, I had had enough
of our former dispute, having been long convinced (though not till ten years
after I had left Edinburgh College), that the pith of conversation does not
consist in exhibiting your own superior knowledge on matters of small
consequence, but in enlarging, improving, and correcting the information you
possess, by the authority of others. I therefore let the Marquis show his code
at his pleasure, and was rewarded by his entering into a learned and
well-informed disquisition on the florid style of architecture introduced into
France during the seventeenth century. He pointed out its merits and its defects
with considerable taste; and having touched on topics similar to those upon
which I have formerly digressed, he made an appeal of a different kind in their
favour, founded on the associations with which they were combined. »Who,« he
said, »would willingly destroy the terraces of the Chateau of Sully, since we
cannot tread them without recalling the image of that statesman, alike
distinguished for severe integrity and for strong and unerring sagacity of mind?
Were they an inch less broad, a ton's weight less massive, or were they deprived
of their formality by the slightest inflections, could we suppose them to remain
the scene of his patriotic musings? Would an ordinary root-house be a fit scene
for the Duke occupying an arm-chair, and his Duchess a tabouret - teaching from
thence lessons of courage and fidelity to his sons, - of modesty and submission
to his daughters, of rigid morality to both; while the circle of young noblesse
listened with ears attentive, and eyes modestly fixed on the ground in a
standing posture, neither replying nor sitting down, without the express command
of their prince and parent? - No, Monsieur,« he said, with enthusiasm; »destroy
the princely pavilion in which