ill-looking fellow had been seen about the
premises at, nightfall," says the police report. "A
very suspicious character had asked for a bed;
his wardrobe was in 'a spotted handkerchief.'
The waiter remembers that a fellow, much travel-
stained and weary, stopped at the door that
evening and asked if there was any cheap house
of entertainment in the village." Heaven help
the poor wayfarer if anyone has been robbed,
any house broken into, any rick set fire to, while
he passed through that locality. There is no
need of a crowd of witnesses to convict him,
since every bend in his hat, every tear in his
coat, and every rent in his shoes, are evidence
against him.

If I thought over these things in sorrow and
humiliation, it was in a very proud spirit that I
called to mind how, on that same morning, I
deposited the bag with all the money in Messrs.
Haber's bank, saw the contents duly counted
over, replaced and sealed up, and then addressed
in Her Majesty's Minister at Kalbbratenstadt,
taking a receipt for the same. "This was only
just common honesty," says the reader. Oh, if
there is an absurd collocation of words, it is
that! Common honesty! why, there is nothing
in this world so perfectly, so totally uncommon!
Never, I beseech you, undervalue the waiter
who restores the ring you dropped in the coffee-
room; nor hold him cheaply who gives back the
umbrella you left in the cab. These seem such
easy things to do, but they are not easy. Men
are more or less Cornish wreckers in life, and
very apt to regard the lost article as a treasure-
trove. I have said all this to you, amiable
reader, that you may know what it cost me, on
that same morning, not to be a rogue, and not
to enrich myself with the goods of another.

I underwent a very long and searching self-
examination to ascertain why it was I had not
appropriated that bag, an offence which, legally
speaking, would only amount to a breach of
trust. I said, "Is it that you had no need of
the money, Potts? Did you feel that your own
means were ample enough? Was it that your
philosophy had made you regard gold as mere
dross, and then think that the load was a burden?
Or, taking higher ground, had you recalled
the first teachings of your venerable parent, that
good man and careful apothecary, who had given
you your first perceptions of right and wrong?"
I fear that I was obliged to say No, in turn, to
each of these queries. I would have been very
glad to be right, proud to have been a philosopher,
overjoyed to feel myself swayed by moral
motives, but I could not palm the imposition on
my conscience, and had honestly to own that the
real reason of my conduct was—I was in love!
There was the whole of it!

There was an old sultan once so impressed
with an ill notion of the sex, that whenever a
tale of misfortune or disgrace reached him, his
only inquiry as to the source of the evil was,
Who was she? Now, my experiences of life
have travelled in another direction, and whenever
I read of some noble piece of heroism, or
some daring act of self-devotion, I don't ask
whether he got the Bath or the Victoria Cross,
if he were made a governor here, or a vice-
governor there, but who was She that prompted
this glorious deed? I'd like to know all about
her: the colour of her eyes, her hair; was she
slender or plump, was she fiery or gentle; was it
an old attachment or an acute attack coming
after a paroxysm at first sight?

If I were the great chief of some great public
department where all my subordinates were
obliged to give heavy security for their honesty,
I would neither ask for bail bonds or sureties,
but I'd say, "Have you got a wife, or a sweetheart?
either will do. Let me look at her. If
she be worthy an honest man's love, I am satisfied;
mount your high stool and write away."

Oh, how I longed to stand aright in that dear
girl's eyes, that she should see me worthy of
her! Had she yielded to all my wayward notions
and rambling opinions, giving way either in careless
indolence or out of inability to dispute them,
she had never made the deep impression on my
heart. It was because she had bravely asserted
her own indedendence, never conceding where
unconvinced, never yielding where unvanquished,
that I loved her. What a stupid reverie was
that of mine when I fancied her one of those
strong-minded, determined women—a thickly-
shod, umbrella-carrying female, who can travel
alone and pass her trunk through a custom-
house. No, she was delicate, timid, and gentle;
there was no over-confidence in her, nor the
slightest pretension. Rule me? not a bit of it.
Guide, direct, support, confirm, sustain me;
elevate my sentiments, cheer me on my road in
life, making all evil odious in my eyes, and the
good to seem better!

I verily believe, with such a woman, an
humble condition in life offers more chances of
happiness than a state of wealth and splendour.
If the best prizes of life are to be picked up
around a man's fireside, moderate means,
conducing as they do to a home life, would point
more certainly to these than all the splendour of
grand receptions. If I were, say, a village
doctor, a schoolmaster; if I were able to eke
out subsistence in some occupation, whose
pursuit might place me sufficiently favourably in
her eyes. I don't like grocery, for instance,
or even "dry goods," but something—it's no
fault of mine if the English language be cramped
and limited, and that f must employ the odious
word "genteel," but it conveys, in a fashion,
all that I aim at.

I began to think how this was to be done. I
might return to my own country, go back to
Dublin, and become Potts and Son—at least
son! A very horrid thought, and very hard to
adopt.

I might take a German degree in physic, and
become an English doctor, say, at Baden, Ems,
Geneva, or some other resort of my countrymen
on the Continent. I might give lectures, I
scarcely well knew on what, still less to whom;
or I could start as Professor Potts, and instruct
foreigners in Shakespeare. There were at least
"three courses" open to me; and to consider