276 A MONTH IN THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



fessed his delight at his having at last laid hold 

 of a gentleman who had hit him. When on my 

 telling him that I should require his testimony, the 

 touter flatly refused to be forthcoming, unless I 

 resorted for the time I must be detained while wait- 

 ing for the Monday's packet, to " his hotel." He 

 mentioned the name of " his hotel," but I have for- 

 gotten it ; so all I can do is to wish that the hotel, 

 whichever it was, had a more honest suitor to gain 

 it custom. Having informed him that I should go 

 to the Hotel de I'Europe, and nowhere else ; and, 

 giving him something for what he had done, he 

 vanished in the darkness, and then I got into my 

 cab and drove to my destination. 



On arriving at the Hotel de I'Europe, nothing 

 could be greater than the attention I met with ; dry 

 things were offered me by the maitre-d'hotel, but, as 

 wet things were nothing new, I preferred keeping 

 mine on, and at once ordering dinner. Having done 

 justice to a very nice and comfortable repast, I 

 retired to bed, and fell into a sort of dreamy rage 

 about the late affair. Disjointed sentences, like the 

 following, were for ever on my lips, a nod to sleep 

 doing duty for a full stop. 



" I wish I'd known I was to have been too late to 

 get my passport." A nod. " I'd have caught and 



