y degree, men and women, lame and blind,
Irish, Scotch, and English, some on crutches, some in bowls, some in
go-carts. They all knew him as the "gentleman," and I must do the regular
fraternity of tramps the justice to say, that not one would answer a
question until he made certain that I meant the "gentleman" no harm.

One evening, about three weeks after the appearance of the advertisement,
my clerk announced "another beggar." There came in an old man leaning upon
a staff, clad in a soldier's great coat all patched and torn, with a
battered hat, from under which a mass of tangled hair fell over his
shoulders and half concealed his face. The beggar, in a weak, wheezy,
hesitating tone, said, "You have advertised for Molinos Fitz-Roy. I hope
you don't mean him any harm; he is sunk, I think, too low for enmity now;
and surely no one would sport with such misery as his." These last words
were uttered in a sort of piteous whisper.

I answered quickly, "Heaven forbid I should sport with misery: I mean and
hope to do him good, as well as myself."

"Then, sir, I am Molinos Fitz-Roy!"

While we were conversing candles had been brought in. I have not very
tender nerves--my head would not agree with them--but I own I started and
shuddered when I saw and knew that the wretched creature before me was
under thirty years of age and once a gentleman. Sharp, aquiline features,
reduced to literal skin and bone, were begrimed and covered with dry fair
hair; the white teeth of the half-open mouth shattered with eagerness, and
made more hideous the foul pallor of the rest of the countenance. As he
stood leaning on a staff half bent, his long, yellow bony fingers clasped
over the crutch-head of his stick, he was indeed a picture of misery,
famine, squalor, and premature age, too horrible to dwell upon. I made him
sit down, and sent for some refreshment which he devoured like a ghoul,
and set to work to unravel his story. It was difficult to keep him to the
point; but with pains I learned what convinced me that he was entitled to
some property, whether great or small there was no evidence. On parting, I
said, "Now, Mr. F., you must stay in town while I make proper inquiries.
What allowance will be enough to keep you comfortably?"

He answered humbly, after much pressing, "Would you think ten shillings
too much?"

I don't like, if I do those things at all, to do them shabbily, so I said,
"Come every Saturday and you shall have a pound."