It is to three of these chance loiterings of this Kipling of Rome in its decadence that we owe the famous stories alluded to above.

An Incident which added much to my pleasures and enjoyments of that glorious day, deserves notice here, as it illustrates that if one even starts to make the tour of the world alone, so that he may not be detained by the loiterings of a companion whose tastes and fancies differ from his, need not therefore be without pleasant associates when he is in want of them.

" In referring back to these volumes, we are led into continual loiterings by the way.

I would dilate upon my noon-day loiterings amidst wild ruins, and thick forests, and on the shaded banks of riversthe pic-nic partiesthe gipsy propheciesthe twilight homeward walkthe social tea-drinking, and, the last scene of all, the "rosy dreams and slumbers light," induced by wholesome exercise and placid thoughts.[050]