“Is it known who he is, or whether he is a native of this neighborhood?”

“No, sir; he doesn’t belong to this neighborhood; an’ the truth is, that nobody here that ever I heard of knows anything at all, barrin’ guesswork, about the unfortunate poor creature.  If ever he was a gintleman,” exclaimed the kind-hearted waiter, “he’s surely to be pitied, when one sees the state he’s brought to.”

“Well, Paudeen, will you fetch him to me, if you know where he is?  Say I wish to see him.”

“What name, if you plaise,” asked the waiter, with assumed indifference; for the truth was, that the whole establishment felt a very natural curiosity to know who the stranger was.

“Never mind the name, Paudeen, but say as I desire you.”

Paudeen had no sooner disappeared than the anonymous gentleman went to one of his trunks, and, pulling out a very small miniature, surveyed it for nearly half a minute; he then looked into the fire, and seemed absorbed in long and deep reflection.  At length, after once more gazing closely and earnestly at it, he broke involuntarily into the following soliloquy: 

“I know,” he exclaimed, “that resemblances are often deceitful, and not to be depended upon.  In this case, however, there is scarcely a trace that could constitute any particular peculiarity—­a peculiarity which, if it existed, would strengthen—­I know not whether to say—­my suspicions or my hopes.  The early disappearance of that poor boy, without the existence of a single vestige by which he could be traced, resembles one of those mysteries that are found only in romances.  The general opinion is, that he has been made away with, and is long dead; yet of late, a different impression has gone abroad, although we know not exactly how it has originated.”

He then paced, with a countenance of gloom, uncertainty, and deep anxiety, through the room, and after a little time, proceeded: 

“I shall, at all events, enter into conversation with this person, after which I will make inquiries concerning the gentry and nobility of the neighborhood when I think I shall be able to observe whether he will pass the Gourlay family over, or betray any consciousness of a particular knowledge of their past or present circumstances.  ’Tis true, he may overreach me; but if he does, I cannot help it.  Yet, after all,” he proceeded, “if he should prove to be the person I seek, everything may go well; I certainly observed faint traces of an honorable feeling about him when I gave him the money, which, notwithstanding his indigence and dissipation, he for a time refused to take.”

He then resumed his seat, and seemed once more buried in thought and abstraction.

Our friend Paudeen was not long in finding the unfortunate object of the stranger’s contemplation and interest.  On meeting him, he perceived that he was slightly affected with liquor, as indeed was the case generally whenever he could procure it.