acter for sanity, somewhat compromised by this incident, I said:

"Have you a money-changer in these parts? If so, let me have some silver
for this English gold." I put my hand in my pocket for my purse; not
finding it, I tried another and another. I ransacked them all over
again, patted myself, shook my coat, looked into my hat, and then,
with a sudden flash of memory, I bethought me that I had left it with
Catinka, and was actually without one sou in the world! I sat down, pale
and almost fainting, and my arms fell powerless at my sides.

"I have lost my purse!" gasped I out, at length.

"Indeed!" said the old man, but with a tone of such palpable scorn that
it actually sickened me.

"Yes," said I, with all that force which is the peculiar prerogative of
truth; "and in it all the money I possessed."

"I have no doubt of it," rejoined he, in the same dry tone as before.

"You have no doubt of what, old man? Or what do you mean by the
supercilious quietness with which you assent to my misfortune? Send the
landlord to me."

"I will do more! I will send the police," said he, as he shuffled out of
the room.

I have met scores of men on my way through life who would not have felt
the slightest embarrassment in such a situation as mine, fellows so
accustomed to shipwreck, that the cry of "Breakers ahead!" or "Man the
boats," would have occasioned neither excitement nor trepidation. What
stuff they are made of instead of nerves, muscles, and arteries, I
cannot imagine, since, when the question is self-preservation, how can
it possibly be more imminent than when not alone your animal existence
is jeopardized, but the dearer and more precious life of fame and
character is in peril?

For a moment I thought that though this besotted old fool of a waiter
might suspect my probity the more clear-sighted intelligence of the
landlord would at once recognize my honest nature, and with the
confidence of a noble conviction say, "Don't tell me that the man yonder
is a knave. I read him very differently. Tell me your story, sir." And
then I would tell it. It is not improbable that my speculation might
have been verified had it not been that it was a landlady and not a
landlord who swayed the destinies of the inn. Oh, what a wise invention
of our ancestors was the Salique law! How justly they appreciated
the unbridled rashness of the female nature in command! How well they
understood the one-idea'd impetuosity with which they rush