of which I was very
loath to do. It is not essential for me to tell any person that when you
seek a position it is better that you appear not too greatly in need
of it; and my former garments had prejudiced many against me, I fear,
because they had been patched by a friendly concierge. Pantaloons suffer
as terribly as do antiques from too obvious restorations; and while I
was only grateful to the good woman's needle (except upon one occasion
when she forgot to remove it), my costume had reached, at last, great
sympathies for the shade of Praxiteles, feeling the same melancholy over
original intentions so far misrepresented by renewals.

Therefore I determined to preserve my fineries to the uttermost; and
it was fortunate that I did so; because, after dining, for three nights
upon nothing but looking out of my window, the fourth morning brought me
a letter from my English friend. I had written to him, asking if he knew
of any people who wished to pay a salary to a young man who knew how to
do nothing. I place his reply in direct annexation:

"Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, May 14.

"My dear Ansolini,--Why haven't you made some of your relatives do
something? I understand that they do not like you; neither do my own,
but after our crupper at Monte Carlo what could mine do, except provide?
If a few pounds (precious few, I fear!) be of any service to you, let
me know. In the mean time, if you are serious about a position, I
may, preposterously enough, set you in the way of it. There is an old
thundering Yankee here, whom I met in the States, and who believed me a
god because I am the nephew of my awful uncle, for whose career he
has ever had, it appears, a life-long admiration, sir! Now, by chance,
meeting this person in the street, it developed that he had need of
a man, precisely such a one as you are not: a sober, tutorish,
middle-aged, dissenting parson, to trot about the Continent tied to a
dancing bear. It is the old gentleman's cub, who is a species of Caliban
in fine linen, and who has taken a few too many liberties in the land
of the free. In fact, I believe he is much a youth of my own kind with
similar admiration for baccarat and good cellars. His father must return
at once, and has decided (the cub's native heath and friends being too
wild) to leave him in charge of a proper guide, philosopher, courier,
chaplain, and friend, if such can be found, the same required to travel
with the cub and keep him out o