He had now left the past behind, and a new world lay entrancingly before him.

He read, and thought, and dreamed, until far on in the morning.
The first books he read were of comparatively little importance, though they furnished an opening into literature.

'The Children's Magazine'{1} held him in raptures for a time.

Some of his friendly customers lent him the 'Fables of Florian,' and afterwards Florian's pastoral romance of 'Estelle'-- perhaps his best work.

The singer of the Gardon entirely bewitched Jasmin.