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EUGENE ARAM.
CHAPTER V.
a dinner at the squire's hall.—a conversation between two retired men with different objects in retirement.—disturbance first introduced into a peaceful family.
"Can he not be sociable?"—Troilus and Cressida.
"Subit quippe etiam ipsius inertiæ dulcedo; et invisa primò
desidia postremò amatur."—Tacitus.
"How use doth breed a habit in a man!
This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns."
The next day, faithful to his appointment, Aram arrived at Lester's. The good Squire received him with a warm cordiality, and Madeline with a blush and a smile that ought to have been more grateful to him than acknowledgements. She was still a prisoner to the sofa, but in compliment to Aram, the sofa was wheeled into the hall where they dined, so that she was not
