"Yes."
"You ought to be well booked up before you go, or you'll lose time. By the way, I made an acquaintance a little while ago in the diligence from Strasburg—a very agreeable man, a professor at Berlin——"
"O, the professor whom you and Richards were going to see, the other night."
A thrill shot through Vinal's nerves; but the unsuspecting Morton almost instantly relieved his terror.
"I was standing on the steps as you went out, and heard you say that you were going to visit him. From the way in which you spoke, I imagined him to be some professor of the noble art of self-defence."
"Ha, ha!" laughed Vinal, not quite recovered from his surprise; "no, not precisely that; Speyer is a philologist—that's his department."
"And Richards knows him, too?"
"Yes, through my introduction."
"From your calling him 'his friend, the professor,' I imagined that the acquaintance began the other way."
"Yes, his friend, with a vengeance. Confound the fellow, as I was walking with him the other day, we met Speyer, and I, thinking no harm, introduced them; but it wasn't twenty-four hours before Richards was at him to borrow money, which Speyer let him have. I dare say Richards has bled you as well."