Near him a lamp, placed in a stand of old crackled celadon, shed through its groundglass globe a soft, milky light, like moonbeams through a mist. The light fell upon a book which Guy held with a careless hand, and which was none else than Longfellow's “Evangeline.”

No doubt Guy was admiring the work of the greatest poet young America has yet produced, but he was in that lazy state of mind in which absence of thought is preferable to the finest thought expressed in sublime terms. He had read a few verses, then, without dropping his book [sans quitter le livre], had let his head rest upon the soft upholstering of the arm-chair, covered with a piece of lace, and was enjoying to the full the temporary stoppage of the working of his brain [il jouissait délicieusement de ce temps d'arrêt de son cerveau]. (GE 14; GF 35–36)