t rid of his presence and escape further scrutiny from
his prying glances.

How relieved I felt when the fellow closed the door after him and left
me to "blow off the steam" of my indignation all alone! And was I not
indignant? Only to fancy this insolent old woman giving her orders
without so much as condescending to communicate with me! I am left to
learn her whim by a mere accident, or not learn it at all, and exhibit
myself ready to depart at the inn door, and then hear, for the first
time, that I may unpack again.

This was unquestionably a studied rudeness, and demanded an equally
studied reprisal. She means to discredit my station, and disparage
my influence; how shall I reply to her? A vast variety of expedients
offered themselves to my mind: I could go off, leaving a fearful letter
behind me,--a document that would cut her to the very soul with
the sarcastic bitterness of its tone; but could I leave without a
reconciliation with Miss Herbert,--without the fond hope of our meeting
as friends. I meant a great deal more, though I would n't trust
myself to say so. Besides, were I to go away, there were financial
considerations to be entertained. I could not, of course, carry off that
crimson bag with its gold and silver contents, and yet it was very hard
to tear myself from such a treasure.

I say it under correction, for I have never been rich, and,
consequently, never in the position to assert it positively; but
I declare my firm conviction to be that no man has ever tasted the
unbounded pleasures of a careless liberality on a Journey, who has not
travelled at some other person's expense. Be as wealthy as you like, let
your portmanteau be stuffed full of circular notes, and there will be
present at moments of payment the thought, "If I do not allow myself
to be cheated here, I shall have all the more to squander there." But,
drawing from the bag of another, no such mean reflection obtrudes. You
might as well defraud your lungs of a long inspiration out of the fear
of taking more than your share of the atmosphere. There is enough, and
will be enough there when you are dust and ashes.

In fact, if I had on one side the "three courses" of the great
statesman, I had on the other full thirty reasons against each, and,
therefore, I resolved to suspend action and do nothing. And let me here
passingly remark that, much as we hear every day about the merits of
promptitude and quick-wittedness, in nine cases out of ten