He saw all things through the pure atmosphere of his own happy nature: and if it remained to him to discover how Geneva would stand the test of a closer intimacy, at this moment, the youth took the city to his heart with no jot of misgiving.

To follow in the steps of Theodore Beza, a Frenchman like himself and gently bred, to devote himself, in these surroundings to the Bible and the Sword, and find in them salvation for himself and help for others--this seemed an end simple and sufficing: the end too, which all men in Geneva appeared to him to be pursuing that summer evening.
By-and-by a grave citizen, a psalm-book in his hand, directed him to the inn in the Bourg du Four; a tall house turning the carved ends of two steep gables to the street.

On either side of the porch a long low casement suggested the comfort that was to be found within; nor was the pledge unfulfilled.

In a trice the student found himself seated at a shining table before a simple meal and a flagon of cool white wine with a sprig of green floating on the surface.

His companions were two merchants of Lyons, a vintner of Dijon, and a taciturn, soberly clad professor.