w?" asked my
friend. "Well, I am rather pressed for money," said the man,
respectfully. "Oh, then, here it is," said my friend, pulling a heap of
gold, or what looked like it, out of his pocket. "By the bye," said he,
turning to me, "I am a sovereign short; can you lend me one?" No, I
could not. Could I lend him half-a-sovereign? No; I could not. Could I
lend him five shillings? I had not even that insignificant sum to spare.
"Oh, it does not matter," said my friend; "I can get the money over the
way, I will just go and fetch it, and will be back in five minutes." And
he and his confederate went away together to be seen no more by me.
Certainly he was not on board the _Austral_, as I took my passage in her
to Adelaide.

As I left I met a policeman.

"Have you any rogues in these parts?" I innocently asked.

"Well, we have a few. There was one from New York a little while ago,
but he had to go back home. He said he was no match for our Melbourne
rogues at all." It was well that I escaped scot-free. On the steamer in
which I returned there was a poor third-class passenger who had lost his
all in such a way. He was fool enough to let the man treat him to a
drink, and that little drink proved rather a costly affair. All his
hard-earned savings had disappeared.

CHAPTER XVI.
INTERVIEWING THE PRESIDENT.

It is about time, I wrote one day in America, I set my face homeward.
When on the prairie I was beginning to speculate whether I should ever be
fit to make an appearance in descent society again. Now, it seems to me,
the question to be asked is, Whether I have not soared so high in the
world as to have lost all taste for the frugal simplicity of that home
life, where, in the touching words of an American poet I met with this
morning, it is to be trusted my

Daughters are acting day by day,
So as not to bring disgrace on their papa far away.

Here, in Washington, I am made to pass for an "Honourable," in spite of
my modest declarations to the contrary, and have had the honour of a
private interview with the greatest man in this part of the world--the
President of the United States. One night, when I retired to rest, I
found my bedroom on the upper storey--contiguous to the fire-escape, a
convenience you are always bound to remember in the U.S.--had been
changed for a magnificent bedroom, with a gorgeous sitting-room attached,
on the first floor, and there loomed before me a terrific vi