the morning, had gone to
bed dead tired, and had slept like a log until ten, when Hinge came in
with a cup of steaming coffee, and began with his usual silent dexterity
to lay out my clothes. I paid no especial heed to him at first, but
by-and-by I caught sight of his face reflected in the mirror which
decorated my skimpy wardrobe, and I could see at once that he was
beaming with self-congratulation. He was one of the most faithful and
constant fellows in the world, but as a general thing he was a little
saturnine in temper. Any outward display of cheerfulness was rare
with him, and such an outward sign of inward exultation as I read this
morning was a downright astonishment.

"Why, Hinge," I asked him, "what's the matter with you?"

"Nothing the matter with me, sir," responded Hinge.

"You look particularly pleased," I said. "What has happened? Has anybody
left you a fortune?"

"No, sir," Hinge answered, turning his hard-bitten, queer old mug
towards me with a shining smile. "Nobody's left me a fortune, sir,
but I'm just as glad as as if they had. You're a-lying a bit late this
morning, sir, and you haven't seen the newspapers."

"The newspapers!" I cried, springing out of bed at once. "Let me have
them. What's the news?"

"The news is, sir," Hinge answered, standing in attitude of attention,
and smiling like a happy Gargoyle--"the news is, sir, as the Italians is
playing Old Harry at Milan with them Austrians, and old Louis Philippe
turned up at Newhaven, England, yesterday."

I made my toilet with unusual haste, and in the meantime Hinge brought
the papers and read out the news.

"I spent some years among them Austrians, sir," said Hinge, and then
paused suddenly, scratching his head with a look of irritation.

"Yes," I answered; "what of that?" Something was evidently on the good
fellow's mind, and in the midst of his delight he was troubled with it.

"You're a-going out to Italy, ain't you, sir?" he asked. I was shaving
at the moment, and contented myself with a mere affirmative grunt.
"Well, it's like this, sir," said Hinge; "I was in a civil capacity when
I was in Austria, wasn't I, sir?"

"Well, yes," I told him, "I suppose so."

"They couldn't have sworn me in without my knowing it, could they, sir?"
Hinge demanded. "Of course I picked up a bit of the language in the
course of a year or two, but when I went there I didn't speak a word.
When I was first engaged, sir, there was a lot of things said