“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.
“After this I went home, made up my bundle, and left the town. I walked all the way and lived soberly, so that my money lasted till this morning. To-morrow I shall write to my mother, who lives at Luneville, and I am sure she will send me some money.”
“And what do you think of doing?”