your appearance."

"Ay, certainly, sir, as far as four pounds--or, I should rather say,
three pounds went, I did something for the outer man."

"Why not the five?" asked the other. "I wished you to make yourself as
comfortable as possible, and did not imagine you could have done it for
less."

"No, sir, not properly, according to the standard of a gentleman; but I
assure you, that, if I were in a state of utter and absolute starvation,
I would not part with one of the notes you so generously gave me,
scarcely to save my life."

"No!" exclaimed the stranger, with a good deal of surprise. "And pray,
why not, may I ask?"

"Simply," said Fenton, "because I have taken a fancy for it beyond its
value. I shall retain it as pocket-money. Like the Vicar of Wakefield's
daughters, I shall always keep it about me; and then, like them also, I
will never want money."

"That is a strange whim," observed the other, "and rather an
unaccountable one, besides."

"Not in the slightest degree," replied Fenton, "if you knew as much as
I do; but, at all events, just imagine that I am both capricious and
eccentric; so don't be surprised at anything I say or do."

"Neither shall I," replied "the anonymous" "However, to come to other