“‘It ought to be cheap here, anyhow,’ said I. ‘Faith, I think a body ought to be paid for living in it; but how will I find out the family!’
“I was two hours walking through this cursed hole, always coming back to a big square, with a fish-market, no matter which way I turned; for devil a one could tell me a word about Mrs. Blake or Mrs. Fitz. either.
“‘Is there a hotel?’ said I; and the moment I said the word, a dozen fellows were dragging me here and there, till I had to leave two or three of them sprawling with my umbrella, and give myself up to the guidance of one of the number. Well, the end of it was—if I passed the last night at Louvain, the present I was destined to pass at Ostend!
“I left this mud town, by the early train, next morning; and having altered my tactics, determined now to be guided by any one who would take the trouble to direct me,—neither resisting nor opposing. To be brief, for my story has grown too lengthy, I changed carriages four times, at each place there being a row among the bystanders which party should decide my destination,—the excitement once running so high that I lost one skirt of my coat, and had my cravat pulled off; and the end of this was that I arrived, at four in the afternoon, at Liège, sixty-odd miles beyond Brussels! for, somehow, these intelligent people have contrived to make their railroads all converge to one small town called ‘Malines:’ so that you may—as was my case—pass within twelve miles of Brussels every day, and yet never set eyes on it.
“I was now so fatigued by travelling, so wearied by anxiety and fever, that I kept my bed the whole of the following day, dreaming, whenever I did sleep, of everlasting railroads, and starting put of my slumbers to wonder if I should ever see my family again. I set out once more, and for the last time,—my mind being made up, that if I failed now, I ‘d take up my abode wherever chance might drop me, and write to my wife to come and look for me. The bright thought flashed on me, as I watched the man in the baggage office labelling the baggage, and, seizing one of the gummed labels marked ‘Bruxelles,’ I took off my coat, and stuck it between the shoulders. This done, I resumed my garment, and took my place.
“The plan succeeded; the only inconvenience I sustained being the necessity I was under of showing my way-bill whenever they questioned me, and making a pirouette to the company,—a performance that kept the passengers in broad grins for the whole day’s journey. So you see, gentlemen, they may talk as they please about the line from Antwerp to Brussels, and the time being only one hour fifteen minutes; but take my word for it, that even—if you don’t take a day’s rest—it’s a good three days’ and a half, and costs eighty-five francs, and some coppers besides.”
“The economy of the Continent, then, did not fulfil your expectations?”
“Economy is it?” echoed Mr. Blake, with a groan; “for the matter of that, my dear, it was like my own journey,—a mighty roundabout way of gaining your object, and”—here he sighed heavily—“nothing to boast of when you got it.”