that."

"But I thought you were only to be two in the coupe, you wicked rogue."

"Two in the coopy? Oh! ah! yes, you know--why, that is, I didn't know
she had her maid with her (what an ass I was to think of a noblewoman
travelling without one!) and couldn't, in course, refuse, when she asked
me to let the maid in."

"Of course not."

"Couldn't, you know, as a man of honor; but I made up for all that,"
said Pogson, winking slyly, and putting his hand to his little bunch of
a nose, in a very knowing way.

"You did, and how?"

"Why, you dog, I sat next to her; sat in the middle the whole way, and
my back's half broke, I can tell you:" and thus, having depicted his
happiness, we soon reached the inn where this back-broken young man was
to lodge during his stay in Paris.

The next day at five we met; Mr. Pogson had seen his Baroness, and
described her lodgings, in his own expressive way, as "slap-up." She
had received him quite like an old friend; treated him to eau sucree, of
which beverage he expressed himself a great admirer; and actually asked
him to dine the next day. But there was a cloud over the ingenuous
youth's brow, and I inquired still farther.

"Why," said he, with a sigh, "I thought she was a widow; and, hang it!
who should come in but her husband the Baron: a big fellow, sir, with a
blue coat, a red ribbing, and SUCH a pair of mustachios!"

"Well," said I, "he didn't turn you out, I suppose?"

"Oh, no! on the contrary, as kind as possible; his lordship said that he
respected the English army; asked me what corps I was in,--said he had
fought in Spain against us,--and made me welcome."

"What could you want more?"

Mr. Pogson at this only whistled; and if some very profound observer of
human nature had been there to read into this little bagman's heart, it
would, perhaps, have been manifest, that the appearance of a whiskered
soldier of a husband had counteracted some plans that the young
scoundrel was concocting.

I live up a hundred and thirty-seven steps in the remote quarter of the
Luxembourg, and it is not to be expected that such a fashionable fellow
as Sam Pogson, with his pockets full of money, and a new city to see,
should be always wandering to my dull quarters; so that, although he
did not make his appearance for some time, he must not be accused of any
luke-warmness of friendship on that score.

He was out, too, when I called at his hotel; but once, I had the good
fortune to see