ad been
sent abroad for his health; that he had suffered from some strange
nervous malady--a kind of epilepsy, with convulsive spasms. His
interlocutor burst out laughing several times at his answers; and
more than ever, when to the question, "whether he had been cured?" the
patient replied:

"No, they did not cure me."

"Hey! that's it! You stumped up your money for nothing, and we
believe in those fellows, here!" remarked the black-haired individual,
sarcastically.

"Gospel truth, sir, Gospel truth!" exclaimed another passenger, a
shabbily dressed man of about forty, who looked like a clerk, and
possessed a red nose and a very blotchy face. "Gospel truth! All they do
is to get hold of our good Russian money free, gratis, and for nothing."

"Oh, but you're quite wrong in my particular instance," said the Swiss
patient, quietly. "Of course I can't argue the matter, because I
know only my own case; but my doctor gave me money--and he had very
little--to pay my journey back, besides having kept me at his own
expense, while there, for nearly two years."

"Why? Was there no one else to pay for you?" asked the black-haired one.

"No--Mr. Pavlicheff, who had been supporting me there, died a couple
of years ago. I wrote to Mrs. General Epanchin at the time (she is a
distant relative of mine), but she did not answer my letter. And so
eventually I came back."

"And where have you come to?"

"That is--where am I going to stay? I--I really don't quite know yet,
I--"

Both the listeners laughed again.

"I suppose your whole set-up is in that bundle, then?" asked the first.

"I bet anything it is!" exclaimed the red-nosed passenger, with
extreme satisfaction, "and that he has precious little in the luggage
van!--though of course poverty is no crime--we must remember that!"

It appeared that it was indeed as they had surmised. The young fellow
hastened to admit the fact with wonderful readiness.

"Your bundle has some importance, however," continued the clerk, when
they had laughed their fill (it was observable that the subject of their
mirth joined in the laughter when he saw them laughing); "for though I
dare say it is not stuffed full of friedrichs d'or and louis d'or--judge
from your costume and gaiters--still--if you can add to your possessions
such a valuable property as a relation like Mrs. General Epanchin, then
your bundle becomes a significant object at once. That is, of course, if
you really are a relative