"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--- 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 of the inn, the trunk was taken from the top
of the coach.
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