The porter would expect his money; I could not pay him;
here was scandal in the house; and I knew right well
the cause of scandal would have to pack. "What do you
mean by calling my honesty in question?" I had cried
the day before, turning upon Myner. Ah, that day
before! the day before Waterloo, the day before the
Flood; the day before I had sold the roof over my head,
my future, and my self-respect, for a dinner at the
Cafe Cluny!
In the midst of these lamentations the famous
registered letter came to my door, with healing under
its seal. It bore the postmark of San Francisco, where
Pinkerton was already struggling to the neck in
multifarious affairs; it renewed the offer of an
allowance, which his improved estate permitted him to
announce at the figure of two hundred francs a month;
and in case I was in some immediate pinch, it enclosed
an introductory draft for forty dollars. There are a
thousand excellent reasons why a man, in this self-
helpful epoch, should decline to be dependent on
another; but the most numerous and cogent
considerations all bow to a necessity as stern as mine;
and the banks were scarce open ere the draft was
cashed.
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