nd I felt that I 'd have died of starvation
rather than accept the humblest benefit at his hands.

"Very well," said he to my refusal; "all the better that you 've no need
of cash, for, to tell the truth, Potts, you 're not much of a doctor,
nor are you very remarkable as a man of genius; and it is a kind thing
of Providence when such fellows as you are born with even a 'pewter
spoon' in their mouths."

I nearly choked, but I said nothing.

"If you 'd like me to land you anywhere in the Levant, or down towards
the Spanish coast, only tell me."

"No, nothing of the kind. I 'm going north; I 'm going to Moscow,
to Tobolsk; I 'm going to Persia and Astrakhan," said I, in wildest
confusion.

"Well, I can give you a capital travelling-cloak--it's one of those
buntas they make in the Banat, and you 'll need it, for they have
fearfully severe cold in those countries."

With this, and not waiting my resolute refusal, he rose, hobbled out of
the room, and I--ay, there's no concealing it--burst out a-crying!

Weak and sick as I was, I procured an "araba" that night, and, without
one word of adieu, set out for Krim.

*****

It was about two years after this--my father had died in the interval,
leaving me a small but sufficient fortune to live on, and I had just
arrived in Paris, after a long desultory ramble through the east of
Europe--I was standing, one morning early in one of the small alleys of
the Champs Elysees, watching with half-listless curiosity the various
grooms as they passed to exercise their horses in the Bois de Boulogne.
Group after group passed me of those magnificent animals in which Paris
is now more than the rival of London, and at length I was struck by the
appearance of a very smartly dressed groom, who led along beside him a
small-sized horse, completely sheeted and shrouded from view. Believing
that this must prove some creature of rare beauty, an Arab of purest
descent, I followed them as they went, and at last overtook them.

The groom was English, and by my offer of a cigar, somewhat better than
the one he was smoking, he was very willing to satisfy my curiosity.

"I suppose he has Arab blood in him," said he, half contemptuously; "but
he's forty years old now if he's a day. What they keep him for I don't
know, but they make as much work about him as if he was a Christian; and
as for myself, I have nothing else to do than walk him twice a day to
his exercise, and take care that his oats are