jibing and impertinent tone. From that moment, too, a dozen expensive
tastes that he never dreamed of before enter his head: he wants
to purchase a hack or give a dinner-party or bet at a racecourse,
principally because he has not got a sou in his pocket, and he is afraid
it may be guessed by others--such is the fatal tendency to strive or
pretend to something which has no other value in our eyes than the
effect it may have on our acquaintances, regardless of what sacrifices
it may demand.

Forgive, I pray, this long digression, which although I hope not without
its advantages would scarcely have been entered into were it not
_a propos_ to myself. And to go back--I began to feel excessively
uncomfortable at the delay of my money. My first care every morning was
to repair to the post-office; sometimes I arrived before it was open,
and had to promenade up and down the gloomy Rue de l'Evecque till
the clock struck; sometimes the mail would be late (a foreign mail is
generally late when the weather is peculiarly fine and the roads good!);
but always the same answer came, 'Rien pour vous, Monsieur O'Leary';
and at last I imagined from the way the fellow spoke that he had set the
response to a tune, and sang it.

Beranger has celebrated in one of his very prettiest lyrics 'how happy
one is at twenty in a garret.' I have no doubt, for my part, that the
vicinity of the slates and the poverty of the apartment would have much
contributed to my peace of mind at the time I speak of. The fact of a
magnificently furnished salon, a splendid dinner every day, champagne
and Seltzer promiscuously, cab fares and theatre tickets innumerable
being all scored against me were sad dampers to my happiness; and from
being one of the cheeriest and most light-hearted of fellows, I sank
into a state of fidgety and restless impatience, the nearest thing I
ever remember to low spirits.

Such was I one day when the post, which I had been watching anxiously
from mid-day, had not arrived at five o'clock. Leaving word with the
commissionaire to wait and report to me at the hotel, I turned back
to the table d'hote. By accident, the only guests were the count and
madame. There they were, as accurately dressed as ever; so handsome
and so happy-looking; so attached, too, in their manner towards each
other--that nice balance between affection and courtesy which before the
world is so captivating. Disturbed as were my thoughts, I could not help
feeling str