HOW I BECAME AN OUTLAW 315 



her no little trouble to keep in repair. As to what 

 happens when the gay outlaw's locks begin to get a 

 bit thin on the top, and when he learns from experi- 

 ence what rheumatism is, fiction says not ; nor does 

 the boy inquire. 



When the boy gets older he becomes aware of the 

 existence of a very different type of outlaw — quite 

 up-to-date. Instead of the greenwood, the haunt of 

 this specimen is generally a second-class Continental 

 watering-place. Sometimes he is a harmless specimen 

 — a bankrupt of good family, who has nothing to 

 gain by the whitewashing process, or, to go rather 

 lower on the scale, one who w^ould not care to go 

 through that mauvais quaint cVheure w^ith the Official 

 Receiver. The still lower orders are numerous, end- 

 ing with that of those guilty of crimes at which even 

 the gorge of men of vicious lives rises, and whom it 

 is thought better to leave in exile than to bring back 

 to a punishment, however merited, the infliction of 

 which would flood the newspapers with the recital 

 of their infamy. 



Then the lad ceases to wish to be an outlaw. 



I had lonof ceased to do so when I became one, and 

 as my species (to speak scientifically) is equally foreign 

 to any of the above-mentioned classes — although, by 

 the way, the Forest of Arden enters into the matter 

 — the story may bear telling. It happened thus. 

 In the late autumn of the year 18 — I had made 

 my way to the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. Most 

 of us, I fancy, would never have heard of this State 

 but for certain diplomatic excitements some decades 

 back, so I may as well explain that this little country 

 is a survival of the map of Europe of the 'forties. 

 It is a complete, compact, and independent little 



