“I am bound for L-; at any rate, I am booked for that sea-port,” said my friend in reply.
“I am sorry for it,” said I, “for in that case we shall have to part in a quarter of an hour, the coach by which you came stopping no longer.”
“And whither are you bound?” demanded my friend.
“I am stopping at present in this house, quite undetermined as to what to do.”
“Then come along with me,” said Francis Ardry.
“That I can scarcely do,” said I; “I have a horse in the stall which I cannot afford to ruin by racing to L--- by the side of your coach.”
My friend mused for a moment: “I have no particular business at L---,” said he; “I was merely going thither to pass a day or two, till an affair, in which I am deeply interested, at C--- shall come off. I think I shall stay with you for four-and-twenty hours at least; I have been rather melancholy of late, and cannot afford to part with a friend like you at the present moment; it is an unexpected piece of good fortune to have met you; and I have not been very fortunate of late,” he added, sighing.
“Well,” said I, “I am glad to see you once more, whether fortunate, or not; where is your baggage?”
“Yon trunk is mine,” said Francis, pointing to a trunk of black Russian leather upon the coach.
“We will soon have it down,” said I; and at a word which I gave to one of the hangers-on of the inn, the trunk was taken from the top of the coach. “Now,” said I to Francis Ardry, “follow me, I am a person of some authority in this house;” thereupon I led Francis Ardry into the house, and a word which I said to a waiter forthwith installed Francis Ardry in a comfortable private sitting-room, and his trunk in the very best sleeping-room of our extensive establishment.