"But I had already eaten my watch, as the French say: it had been a week
at the Mont de Piete.

"'Your coat then,' says my counsellor, with good-mannered unconcern.

"'And go in my shirt-sleeves?' for I had placed my trunk and its
contents in the charge of my landlord, as security for the payment of my
board and room-rent.

"'In that case, I don't see what you will do, unless you take my
original advice, and dodge the fellow.'

"I left my fair-weather acquaintance in disgust, and went off, literally
staggering under the load, the ever-increasing load, the Pelion upon
Ossa, of francs, francs, francs,--despair, despair, despair.

"'_Eh bien?_' says the driver, interrogatively, as I went out to him.

"'_Pas de chance!_' And I ordered him to drive back to the Cite Odiot.

"'_Bien!_' says he, polite as ever, cheery as ever; and away we went
again, back across the Seine, up the Champs Elysees, into the Rue de
l'Oratoire, to the Cite,--my stomach faint, my head aching, my thoughts
whirling, and the carriage wheels rattling, clattering, chattering all
the way, 'Two francs an hour and drink-money! Two francs an hour and
drink-money!'

"Once more I tried my luck at number five, and was filled with
exasperation and dismay to find that my friend had been home, and gone
off again in great haste, with a portmanteau in his hand.

"Where had he gone? Nobody knew; but he had given his key to the
house-servant, saying he would be absent several days.

"'_Pensez-vous qu'il est alle a Londres?_' I hurriedly inquired.

"'_Monsieur, je n'en sais rien_,' was the calm, decisive response.

"I knew he often went to London; and now my only hope was to catch him
at one of the railway stations. But by which route would he be like to
go? I thought of only one, that by way of Calais, by which I had come,
and I ordered my coachman to drive with all speed to the Northern
Railway Station. He looked a little glum at this, and his '_Bien!_'
sounded a good deal like the 'bang' of the coach-door, as he shut it
rather sharply in my face.

"Again we were off, my head hotter than ever, my feet like ice, and the
coach-wheels saying vivaciously, as before, 'Two francs an hour, and
drink-money! Two francs an hour, and drink-money!' I was terribly afraid
we should be too late; but on arriving at the station, I found there was
no train at all. One had left in the afternoon, and another would leave
late in the evening. Then I happened to think there w