whisky and soda--rye whisky, please."

My face must have been a study as I rang for whisky and soda.

The mixture was brought--for two.

"I suppose you have no objection to my smoking?" coolly said the man in
the room.

"Not at all," I remarked; "this is perfectly lovely; I enjoy it all."

He pulled out his pocket-book and his pencil, crossed his legs, and
having drawn a long whiff from his cigar, he said:

"I see that you have no lecture to deliver in Brushville; may I ask you
what you have come here for?"

"Now," said I, "what the deuce is that to you? If this is the kind of
questions you have to ask me, you go----"

He pocketed the rebuff, and went on undisturbed:

"How are you struck with Brushville?"

"I am struck," said I, "with the cheek of some of the inhabitants. I
have driven to this hotel from the depot in a closed carriage, and I
have seen nothing of your city."

The man wrote down something.

"I lecture to-morrow night," I continued, "before the students of the
State University, and I have come here for rest."

He took this down.

"All this, you see, is very uninteresting; so, good-night."

And I disappeared.

The interviewer rose and came to my side.

"Really, now that I am here, you may as well let me have a chat with
you."

"You wretch!" I exclaimed. "Don't you see that I am dying for sleep? Is
there nothing sacred for you? Have you lost all sense of charity? Have
you no mother? Don't you believe in future punishment? Are you a man or
a demon?"

"Tell me some anecdotes, some of your reminiscences of the road," said
the man, with a sardonic grin.

I made no reply. The imperturbable reporter resumed his seat and smoked.

"Are you gone?" I sighed, from under the blankets.

The answer came in the following words:

"I understand, sir, that when you were a young man----"

"When I was WHAT?" I shouted, sitting up once more.

"I understand, sir, that when you were _quite_ a young man," repeated
the interviewer, with the sentence improved, "you were an officer in
the French army."

"I was," I murmured, in the same position.

"I also understand you fought during the Franco-Prussian war."

"I did," I said, resuming a horizontal position.

"May I ask you to give me some reminiscences of the Franco-Prussian
war--just enough to fill about a column?"

I rose and again sat up.

"Free citizen of the great American Republic," said I, "beware, beware!
There will be blood shed in thi