Excerpt from The Novels of Charles Lever, Vol. 1: The Martins of Cro' Martin Any uniformity in good or evil would be the death blow to that genteel comedy which goes on around us, and whose highest interest very often centres in the surprises we give ourselves by unexpected lines of action and unlocked-for impulses. As this strange drama unfolded itself before me, it had become a passion with me to watch the actors, and Speculate on what they might do. For this, Florence offered an admirable stage. It was eminently cosmopolitan and, in consequence, less under the influence of any distinct code of public opinion than any section of the several nationalities I might have found at home. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.