“‘I was not always,’ said I, as I strolled by his side, ‘the deplorable figure you now see me. Indeed, but a very few months ago I was the over-manager of a great fruit plantation some hundred miles to the north of this place. I had come with good recommendations from my former employers, planters of the Gulf. I had left these my original masters with the best of characters and the kindest of recommendations, and only because the eldest son of one of the partners had to be put into the business and there was no room for both of us. I had accumulated in some years of useful service a sufficient little capital which my kind masters were so exceedingly generous as to double, and I was able to put the total sum into the new business to which I had been recommended. For it is always better,’ I added, ‘to have some stake in the firm.’
“‘You are right,’ said my new friend in hearty approval. ‘There is no greater error than to offer a firm such intangible things as talent, honesty and the rest. Valuable as they are, if they are unaccompanied by metal they are without substance and void.’
“With an expression of great humility I applauded his reply and told him how flattered I was to find that my judgment had jumped with his. ‘But, alas, Sir!’ I continued deferentially, ‘There is no controlling the current of our destinies! For there is One above——’
“‘I know, I know!’ agreed my companion hurriedly, in the tones of one to whom the sentiment was familiar and at the same time doubtful, and I continued:
“‘By that Divine Will,’ I went on, ‘was I visited. Heaven saw fit to try its servant. In the course of my management I was sent to negotiate the purchase of a cargo of lime-dressing at the nearest port, for use upon the plantation. On my way I had the misfortune to be robbed at an inn of the pouch of gold that had been confided to me. I ought, of course, to have returned at once and told my partners and employers what had happened, and to have offered, perhaps, to repair out of my own property what might look like the result of my own negligence; but I was afraid lest I should not be believed, and again lest, if I were believed, the loss should prejudice me in their eyes as an incompetent. What I did was to go forward to the port that very day, penniless, and trust to the credit of my firm to complete the transaction I had in hand.
“‘But once again I was unfortunate! I carried through the negotiations with success and purchased the cargo upon very reasonable terms. I delayed to the last moment the payment of earnest money and then, when delay would no longer serve, I said carelessly, that full payment would follow by messenger within two days. The merchant’s face darkened. He told me that he had been led on by false pretences, roughly bade me begone and would hear no more of the transaction. He refused to sign, and indeed left me abruptly, saying that he was off to seek another purchaser and telling me at the same time that he was seriously considering whether or no to summon me before the magistrate for having thus lost him a whole day upon a false pretence.
“‘He was as good as his word, and I received a summons from the magistrate that very evening to attend his court the next day.
“‘It was unfortunate that during the night another theft took place in the inn where I lay. The bundles of those staying at the place were searched. My own alone contained no valuables of any kind. One would have thought that such a circumstance would have spoken in my favour. It was exactly the other way. It was argued that a man who will stay in an inn without the means of paying must be a thief of some sort and that since the sum stolen was not to be found elsewhere it was probably I, thus manifestly suspect of trickery, who was the culprit. In my fright I attempted to escape. I was caught and roughly handled, with the final result that I appeared in the magistrate’s court covered with blood, my garments torn and in such a posture subjected to a double accusation upon the part of the innkeeper and also upon the part of the foreign merchant who appeared upon the original charge.