"
"Julius, you sicken me!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am a doctor, but you
sicken me!"
"I explain myself so in detail," said Julius, "_because_ you are a
doctor. But let me finish. I lived that life of complete wedlock with
Nature for I dare not think how many years."
"And you did not get weary of it?" asked Lefevre.
"Weary of it? No! I returned to it always, after a pause of a few days
for the reinvigoration I needed,--I returned to it with all the
freshness of youth, with the advantage which, of course, mere youth can
never have,--an amazingly rich experience. I revelled in the full lap of
life. I passed through many lands, civilised and barbaric; but it was my
especial delight to strike down to that simple, passionate, essential
nature which lies beneath the thickest lacquer of refinements in our
civilised societies. Oh, what a life it was!--what a life!
"But a change came: it must have been growing on me for some time
without my knowledge. I commonly removed from society when I felt
exhaustion coming on me; but on one occasion it chanced that I stayed on
in the pleasant company I was in (I was then in Vienna).
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