thirst, and the cheap cognac at the
public-house was the result. That he was not a man of humble birth,
nor one without home refinements, I had long since divined. Had I not
suspected it before, his manner in presenting me to the old Baroness,
and his behavior in the dining-hall, especially toward the servants,
would have opened my eyes. How then could such a man in an hour become
so besotted a brute?

"And yet every word of Gretchen's story was true. Not only was Fiddles
drunk, soggy, helplessly drunk, but from all accounts he was in that
same condition when he had staggered into the place, and, falling over
a table, had rolled himself against the wall. There he had lain, out of
the way, except when some dram-drinking driver's heavy cowhide boots had
made a doormat of his yielding body--not an unusual occurrence, by the
way, at the roadside taverns frequented by the lower classes.

"We worked over him, calling him by name, propping him up against the
wall, only to have him sag back; and finally, at the suggestion of one
of the truckmen--he was in a half-comatose state really from the liquor
he had absorbed--we carried him out into the stable yard, and I held his
shapely head, with its beautiful hair a-frowze, while a stream of cold
water from the pump struck the back of his head and neck.

"The poor fellow stared around wildly as the chill reached his nerves
and tried to put his arm around me, then he toppled over again and lay
like a log. Nothing was left but to pick him up bodily and carry him
home; that I did with Fritz's, the stable-boy's, help, Gretchen carrying
his cap, and the landlady following behind with his coat, which I had
stripped off when his head went under the pump. The bystanders didn't
care--one drunken man more or less made no difference--but both of
the women were in tears, 'Poor Wilhelm! Somebody had drugged him; some
wicked men had played a trick, etc., etc. I thought of the Rudesheimer,
and then dismissed it from my mind. Something stronger than Rhine wine
had wrought this change.

"We laid him flat out on a cot in a room on the second floor, and
dragged it near the open window so he could get the air from the garden,
and left him, I taking the precaution to lock the door to prevent his
staggering downstairs and breaking his neck.

"The next morning, before I was dressed, in fact, a row downstairs
brought me into the hall outside my door, where I stood listening over
the banister. Then cam