nd myself at ease. My fellow-travellers were not very polished
or very cultivated, but in one respect their good breeding had the
superiority over that of finer folk. They never questioned my right to
be saving, nor seemed to think the worse of me for being poor.

Herr Heinfetter had counselled me to stay a few days at Vienna, and
provide myself with clothes more suitable to my new condition than those
I was wearing.

"If old Ignaz Oppovich saw a silk-lined coat, he 'd soon send you about
your business," said he; "and as to that fine watch-chain and its gay
trinkets, you have only to appear with it once to get your dismissal."

It was not easy, with my little experience of life, to see how these
things should enter into an estimate of me, or why Herr Ignaz should
concern him with other attributes of mine than such as touched my
clerkship; but as I was entering on a world where all was new, where
not only the people, but their prejudices and their likings, were all
strange to me, I resolved to approach them in an honest spirit, and with
a desire to conform to them as well as I was able.

Lest the name Norcott appearing in the newspapers in my father's case
should connect me with his story, Hein-fetter advised me to call myself
after my mother's family, which sounded, besides, less highly born; and
I had my passport made out in the name of Digby Owen.

"Mind, lad," said the banker, as he parted with me, "give yourself no
airs with Ignaz Oppovich; do not turn up your nose at his homely fare,
or handle his coarse napkin as if it hurt your skin, as I have seen you
do here. From his door to destitution there is only a step, and bethink
yourself twice before you take it. I have done all I mean to do by you,
more than I shall ever be paid for. And now, goodbye."

This sort of language grated very harshly on my ears at first; but I had
resolved to bear my lot courageously, and conform, where I could, to the
tone of those I had come down to.

I thanked him, then, respectfully and calmly, for his hospitality to me,
and went my way.

CHAPTER XVI. FIUME

"I saw a young fellow, so like that boy of Norcott's in a third-class
carriage," I overheard a traveller say to his companion, as we stopped
to sup at Gratz.

"He 'll have scarcely come to that, I fancy," said the other, "though
Norcott must have run through nearly everything by this time."

It was about the last time I was to hear myself called in this fashion.
T