Years rolled away from the past; he recalled the young, generous, ardent man, whom, ere the character or career of either had been developed, he had called his friend.

He remembered their wild adventures and gay follies, in climes where they had been all in all to each other; and the beardless boy, whose heart and purse were ever open to him, and to whose very errors of youth and inexperienced passion he, the elder and the wiser, had led and tempted, rose before him in contrast to the grave and melancholy air of the battled and solitary man, who now slowly approached him,--the man whose proud career he had served to thwart, whose heart his schemes had prematurely soured, whose best years had been consumed in exile,--a sacrifice to the grave which a selfish and dishonourable villany had prepared! Cesarini, the inmate of a mad-house, Florence in her shroud,--such were the visions the sight of Maltravers conjured up.

And to the soul which the unwonted and momentary remorse awakened, a boding voice whispered, "And thinkest thou that thy schemes shall prosper, and thy aspirations succeed ?" For the first time in his life, perhaps, the unimaginative Vargrave felt the mystery of a presentiment of warning and of evil.
The two men met, and with an emotion which seemed that of honest and real feeling, Lumley silently held out his hand, and half turned away his head.
"Lord Vargrave!" said Maltravers, with an equal agitation, "it is long since we have encountered." "Long,--very long," answered Lumley, striving hard to regain his self-possession; "years have changed us both; but I trust it has still left in you, as it has in me, the remembrance of our old friendship." Maltravers was silent, and Lord Vargrave continued,-- "You do not answer me, Maltravers.

Can political differences, opposite pursuits, or the mere lapse of time, have sufficed to create an irrevocable gulf between us?
Why may we not be friends again ?" "Friends!" echoed Maltravers; "at our age that word is not so lightly spoken, that tie is not so unthinkingly formed, as when we were younger men." "But may not the old tie be renewed ?" "Our ways in life are different; and were I to scan your motives and career with the scrutinizing eyes of friendship, it might only serve to separate us yet more.

I am sick of the great juggle of ambition, and I have no sympathy left for those who creep into the pint-bottle, or swallow the naked sword." "If you despise the exhibition, why, then, let us laugh at it together, for I am as cynical as yourself." "Ah," said Maltravers with a smile, half mournful, half bitter, "but are you not one of the Impostors ?" "Who ought better to judge of the Eleusiniana than one of the Initiated?
But seriously, why on earth should political differences part private friendship?
Thank Heaven! such has never been my maxim." "If the differences be the result of honest convictions on either side,--no; but are you honest, Lumley ?" "Faith, I have got into the habit of thinking so; and habit's a second nature.