“I share your regret fully, and I, too, have thoroughly enjoyed myself, and even my bruised toe has forgotten to twinge and throb during our converse.”
“By the way,” added Smith, “I find I have forgotten, or lost, my purse; could you kindly lend me a V., for I have my fare to pay.”
“Oh, certainly,” I replied, with apparent pleasure, but with inward heaviness, for alas
I could plead, expound and argue,
Fire with wit, with wisdom glow;
But one word for ever failed me,
Source of all my pain and woe;
Luckless man! I could not say it,
Could not—dare not—answer: No!
The transfer of the Five was speedily made, and at that moment the driver reined in his old horses and drew up at the door of a country inn. Quickly my debtor jumped off the coach; with his bag swinging in his hand, a nod to me and a low salaam to the ladies, he was walking away, when the driver called after him:—
“I say, mister, where’s that ere fare?”
“Ah! that’s a trifle that quite escaped my memory,” responded my quondam comrade. “Never mind, however, you will have a lien upon my trunk in the meantime.”[232]
“Where’s your box?” queried Jehu.
“Oh! that’s a question more easily asked than answered. It is where many a more valuable thing is, in nubibus, or in partibus infidelium. However, it matters little, because you could not detain me for the paltry fare, nor the clothes that I have on, nor even this bag that I have in my manual possession.[233] So by-by to you.”
And away he went, leaving coachee pouring forth his vials of wrath in epithets and expletives strong, if not polite.