You should read the little book
of one of my friends, LE TOURISTE DANS LE FAR-WEST,
you will see it all there in good French." At last,
incensed by days of such discussion, I undertook to
prove to him the contrary, and put the affair in the
hands of my late father's lawyer. From him I had the
gratification of hearing, after a due interval, that my
debtor was dead of the yellow fever in Key West, and
had left his affairs in some confusion. I suppress his
name; for though he treated me with cruel nonchalance,
it is probable he meant to deal fairly in the end.
Soon after this a shade of change in my reception at
the cabman's eating-house marked the beginning of a new
phase in my distress. The first day I told myself it
was but fancy; the next, I made quite sure it was a
fact; the third, in mere panic I stayed away, and went
for forty-eight hours fasting. This was an act of
great unreason; for the debtor who stays away is but
the more remarked, and the boarder who misses a meal is
sure to be accused of infidelity. On the fourth day,
therefore, I returned, inwardly quaking.
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