here we might obtain liquor and refreshments of all
sorts. I fortunately knew the character of the place, and remembering
my promise to Pearson, positively refused to accompany him. He looked
astonished at first, and then set to work to overcome my scruples. I
was firm, and thank Heaven I was, for if a man breaks a newly-formed
resolution to act rightly, he is very apt to go back to his old courses,
and to continue in them more recklessly than before.

"If you don't want to lose your money don't play high stakes, and if you
are afraid of getting drunk, I'll watch that you don't take more than is
good for you," he whispered to me. "But don't sit there like a booby."

"I should be one if I followed your suggestions, for I have no taste for
either gambling or drinking, and I do not want to get it," I answered,
firmly. "Once for all, I will not go."

He uttered a faint laugh as he said, "What has come over the fellow?
However, lend me five sovereigns, and I'll try my luck. If I lose, I
shall be in your debt; if I win, I will pay you double."

"I want no profits," I answered, giving him my purse, from which he
helped himself. "I'll take a stroll along the shore of the bay, and
come back for you in time for the opera."

Taking back my purse, without waiting to hear what he said, I hurried
out. On returning to the billiard-room, after a pleasant walk, at the
hour I had named, Owen was not there, and I was told that an English
officer, who had been desperately wounded in an affray, was lying in a
house close by, and apparently dying. I hurried to the spot, and found,
as I expected, Owen. He was unconscious, and so I engaged some porters,
and had him conveyed immediately on board, where I knew that he would
receive better treatment than elsewhere from our surgeon. When he came
to himself, and heard that I had had him brought on board, he was very
angry at my interference, though the surgeon assured me that by my
promptitude his life had been saved. According to his account, he had
received his wound from an assassin, who, probably mistaking him for
some one else, had rushed out and struck him with his dagger; but the
surgeon, who was not among his admirers, hinted that this was
impossible, and that there would have been no great loss to the world
had the wound been half-an-inch deeper. He was a long time recovering,
and as he never offered to repay me the five pounds I had lent him, I
concluded that his wound ha