I beheld my
good friend Francis Ardry. {163a} I shook him most warmly by the hand,
and said, 'If you are surprised to see me, I am no less so to see you,
where are you bound to?'

'I am bound for L---, {163b} at any rate I am booked for that seaport,'
said my friend in reply.

'I am sorry for it,' said I, 'for in that case we shall have to part in a
quarter of an hour, the coach by which you came stopping no longer.'

'And whither are you bound?' demanded my friend.

'I am stopping at present in this house, quite undetermined as to what to
do.'

'Then come along with me,' said Francis Ardry.

'That I can scarcely do,' said I, 'I have a horse in the stall which I
cannot afford to ruin by racing to L--- by the side of your coach.'

My friend mused for a moment: 'I have no particular business at L---,'
said he; 'I was merely going thither to pass a day or two, till an
affair, in which I am deeply interested, at C--- {164} shall come off. I
think I shall stay with you for four-and-twenty hours at least; I have
been rather melancholy of late, and cannot afford to part with a friend
like you at the present moment; it is an unexpected piece of good fortune
to have met you; and I have not been very fortunate of late,' he added,
sighing.

'Well,' said I, 'I am glad to see you once more, whether fortunate or
not; where is your baggage?'

'Yon trunk is mine,' said Francis, pointing to a trunk of black Russian
leather upon the coach.

'We will soon have it down,' said I, and at a word which I gave to one of
the hangers-on at the inn, the trunk was taken from the top of the coach.
'Now,' said I to Francis Ardry, 'follow me, I am a person of some
authority in this house;' thereupon I led Francis Ardry into the house,
and a word which I said to a waiter forthwith installed Francis Ardry in
a comfortable private sitting-room, and his trunk in the very best
sleeping-room of our extensive establishment.

It was now about one o'clock: Francis Ardry ordered dinner for two, to be
ready at four, and a pint of sherry to be brought forthwith, which I
requested my friend the waiter might be the very best, and which in
effect turned out as I requested; we sat down, and when we had drank to
each other's health, Frank requested me to make known to him how I had
contrived to free myself from my embarrassments in London, what I had
been about since I quitted that city, and the present posture of my
affairs.

I related to Francis A