first clearing off of the old encumbrances on the plot, at a cost of five
hundred thousand dollars, sir. Again I found, as to my individual way of
thinking, that the greater, the more gorgeous, and the more dollarous the
establishment was, the less desirable it was. Nevertheless, again I
drank my cobbler, julep, sling, or cocktail, in all good-will, to my
friend the General, and my friends the Majors, Colonels, and civilians
all; full well knowing that, whatever little motes my beamy eyes may have
descried in theirs, they belong to a kind, generous, large-hearted, and
great people.

I had been going on lately at a quick pace to keep my solitude out of my
mind; but here I broke down for good, and gave up the subject. What was
I to do? What was to become of me? Into what extremity was I
submissively to sink? Supposing that, like Baron Trenck, I looked out
for a mouse or spider, and found one, and beguiled my imprisonment by
training it? Even that might be dangerous with a view to the future. I
might be so far gone when the road did come to be cut through the snow,
that, on my way forth, I might burst into tears, and beseech, like the
prisoner who was released in his old age from the Bastille, to be taken
back again to the five windows, the ten curtains, and the sinuous
drapery.

A desperate idea came into my head. Under any other circumstances I
should have rejected it; but, in the strait at which I was, I held it
fast. Could I so far overcome the inherent bashfulness which withheld me
from the landlord's table and the company I might find there, as to call
up the Boots, and ask him to take a chair,--and something in a liquid
form,--and talk to me? I could, I would, I did.