w and, seizing the
half-empty packet of tobacco that had made me ill, hurled it into the
street. The tobacco scattered before it fell, but I sat at the window
gloating over the packet, which lay a dirty scrap of paper, where every
cab might pass over it. What I call the street is more strictly a
square, for my windows were at the back of the inn, and their view was
somewhat plebeian. The square is the meeting-place of five streets, and
at the corner of each the paper was caught up in a draught that bore it
along to the next.

Here, it may be thought, I gladly forgot the cause of my troubles, but
I really watched the paper for days. My doctor came in while I was still
staring at it, and instead of prescribing more medicine, he made a bet
with me. It was that the scrap of paper would disappear before the
dissolution of the government. I said it would be fluttering around
after the government was dissolved, and if I lost, the doctor was to get
a new stethoscope. If I won, my bill was to be accounted discharged.
Thus, strange as it seemed, I had now cause to take a friendly interest
in paper that I had previously loathed. Formerly the sight of it made me
miserable; now I dreaded losing it. But I looked for it when I rose in
the morning, and I could tell at once by its appearance what kind of
night it had passed. Nay, more: I believed I was able to decide how the
wind had been since sundown, whether there had been much traffic, and if
the fire-engine had been out. There is a fire-station within view of the
windows, and the paper had a specially crushed appearance, as if the
heavy engine ran over it. However, though I felt certain that I could
pick my scrap of paper out of a thousand scraps, the doctor insisted on
making sure. The bet was consigned to writing on the very piece of paper
that suggested it. The doctor went out and captured it himself. On the
back of it the conditions of the wager were formally drawn up and signed
by both of us. Then we opened the window and the paper was cast forth
again. The doctor solemnly promised not to interfere with it, and I gave
him a convalescent's word of honor to report progress honestly.

Several days elapsed, and I no longer found time heavy on my hands. My
attention was divided between two papers, the scrap in the square and my
daily copy of the _Times_. Any morning the one might tell me that I had
lost my bet, or the other that I had won it; and I hurried to the window
fearing th