g a man of birth and station, I need scarcely
say, we were all agreed."

"Would it were otherwise," said I, with a deep sigh; "a humble position
might be endured well enough, if unalloyed by the regrets of a condition
forfeited forever. If you are curious to hear a very unhappy story, I am
willing to relate it."

"You couldn't do me a greater favor," said he, seating himself like one
eager to listen.

"First, then, we'll have some breakfast," said I; "and then, with a good
fire and no fear of interruption,--for I have not one acquaintance in
Paris,--you shall hear my history from beginning to end."

Chocolate and cutlets, champagne and devilled kidneys, brioches,
sardines, and coffee, made their appearance as rapidly as though such
delicacies were in the habit of daily mounting these steep stairs; and
a cheerful blaze glowed once more in a grate where the oldest inhabitant
had never beheld a fire.

These preparations being made, we began our meal, and I opened my
narrative. The reader must not feel offended with me if I ventured to
draw upon my imagination for the earlier facts of my history. Nature had
not been generous to me in the article of a father: what great harm if
I invented one for myself? Fortune had placed my birth beneath the
thatched roof of an Irish cabin: was it not generous of me to call it
the ancient baronial seat of the Cregans? She started me poor and in
rags: I was above repining, and called myself rich and well-nurtured.
But why weary my reader with such a recital? If it was necessary to
raise the foundation on fiction, the after-events of my career I was
satisfied to state pretty nearly as they happened, merely altering the
reasons for my journey to the New World, which I ascribed to my search
after a great inheritance belonging to my family, who were originally
from Andalusia, and grandees of Spain.

"And this of course you failed in," said my friend, who rather felt
this portion of my story less interesting than certain other and more
stirring passages.

"On the contrary," said I, "I succeeded perfectly. I not only
discovered the banker in whose hands my family wealth was deposited, but
established my claim most satisfactorily, and received a very large
sum in gold, with bills to a high amount on various mercantile houses,
besides leaving in his hands an important balance, for which I had
no immediate necessity." After a slight sketch of my Mexican
progress,--very little embellished or