A registered letter for me, who had been so long without one?  Of what it could possibly contain, I had no vestige of a guess; nor did I delay myself guessing; far less form any conscious plan of dishonesty:  the lies flowed from me like a natural secretion.

“O,” said I, “my remittance at last!  What a bother I should have missed it!  Can you lend me a hundred francs until to-morrow?”

I had never attempted to borrow from the porter till that moment:  the registered letter was, besides, my warranty; and he gave me what he had—­three napoleons and some francs in silver.  I pocketed the money carelessly, lingered a while chaffing, strolled leisurely to the door; and then (fast as my trembling legs could carry me) round the corner to the Cafe de Cluny.  French waiters are deft and speedy; they were not deft enough for me; and I had scarce decency to let the man set the wine upon the table or put the butter alongside the bread, before my glass and my mouth were filled.  Exquisite bread of the Cafe Cluny, exquisite first glass of old Pomard tingling to my wet feet, indescribable first olive culled from the hors d’oeuvre—­I suppose, when I come to lie dying, and the lamp begins to grow dim, I shall still recall your savour.  Over the rest of that meal, and the rest of the evening, clouds lie thick; clouds perhaps of Burgundy; perhaps, more properly, of famine and repletion.

I remember clearly, at least, the shame, the despair, of the next morning, when I reviewed what I had done, and how I had swindled the poor honest porter; and, as if that were not enough, fairly burnt my ships, and brought bankruptcy home to that last refuge, my garret.  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 seals.  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.