e him a passage home. But how to get to Liverpool?
The cheapest railroad fare was above a pound. If he must needs walk,
it would take him a week; and he could not afford himself more than one
meal a day, taking his chance to sleep under a corn-stack or a hedgerow.
Very dear, indeed, was the price that grand banquet cost him, and
yet not dearer than half the extravagances men are daily and hourly
committing; the only difference being that the debt is not usually
exacted so promptly. He wrote his name on a card, and gave it to the
waiter, saying, "When I send to you under this name, you will give my
portmanteau to the bearer of the message, for I shall probably not come
back,--at least, for some time."

The waiter was struck by the words, but more still by the dejected look
of one whom, but twenty-four hours back, he had been praising for his
frank and gay bearing.

"Nothing wrong, I hope, sir?" asked the man, respectfully.

"Not a great deal," said Tony, with a faint smile.

"I was afraid, sir, from seeing you look pale this morning, I fancied,
indeed, that there was something amiss. I hope you 're not displeased at
the liberty I took, sir?"

"Not a bit; indeed, I feel grateful to you for noticing that I was not
in good spirits. I have so very few friends in this big city of yours,
your sympathy was pleasant to me. Will you remember what I said about
my luggage?"

"Of course, sir, I 'll attend to it; and if not called for within a
reasonable time, is there any address you 'd like me to send it to?"

Tony stared at the man, who seemed to flinch under the gaze; and it shot
like a bolt through his mind, "He thinks I have some gloomy purpose in
my head." "I believe I apprehend you," said he, laying his hand on the
man's shoulder; "but you are all wrong. There is nothing more serious
the matter with me than to have run myself out of money, and I cannot
conveniently wait here till I write and get an answer from home; there
's the whole of it."

"Oh, sir, if you 'll not be offended at a humble man like me,--if you 'd
forgive the liberty I take, and let me as far as a ten-pound note;" he
stammered, and reddened, and seemed positively wretched in his attempt
to explain himself without any breach of propriety. Nor was Tony,
indeed, less moved as he said,--

"I thank you heartily; you have given me something to remember of this
place with gratitude so long as I live. But I am not so hard pressed as
you suspect. It is a m