“Very good, sir, but you must pay for your board and lodging every day.”
“That, madam, is out of the question, for I have not got a farthing, but I shall have some money when I discover who I am.”
“I am afraid I cannot put you up on those conditions, sir.”
He was going away with a mortified air, when my heart was touched, and I called him back.
“Stay,” said I, “I will pay for you to-day.”
Happiness beamed over his face.
“What have you got in that little bundle?” said I.
“Two shirts, a score of mathematical books, and some other trifles.”
I took him to my room, and finding him tolerably well educated, I asked him how he came to be in such a state of destitution.
“I come from Strasburg,” he replied, “and a cadet of a regiment stationed there having given me a blow in a coffee-house I paid him a visit the next day in his own room and stabbed him there.