not do to engage him at odds so unequal. Telling my friends then,
that I would take two weeks to consider it, they thought the matter
might be indefinitely postponed. Another friend hinted, slyly, that
editors, as a general thing, held character of so little worth that
nothing so much delighted them as to demolish it over a strongly
compounded punch.

"Well, with the loss of my money, I had the satisfaction, or rather
mortification, soon to know that I had gained the suspicions of mine
host of the Astor, who had the temerity to stick his bill in the
door one morning. My balance on hand not being equal to the amount,
I shoved the curious bit of paper into my pocket, and proceeded down
stairs, slightly inclined to saunter and contemplate the matter over
in the park. But the polite host, with an eye made keen by his
doubts, intercepted me at the bottom of the stairs, beckoned me
behind the big bright counter, and said I must pardon the request,
but he would like the trifle between us squared. Notwithstanding his
great respect for politicians in general, they so often forgot these
little matters as to make it a serious affair with him. The kindness
of his manner set my conscience in a tumult; and this, added to the
fact that he had entertained me in a princely style, sent me into a
state of great grief. One likes to perform kind offices to a
courteous recipient. Indeed, nothing would have so much pleased me
as to discharge every obligation to so excellent a landlord. I might
at some future day need the comforts of his house, especially as
several of my friends had intimated, while fortune smiled, that the
voice of the people might one day call me to rule the nation.

"Dispensing all ceremony, I invited mine host to a conference in one
corner, and then and there pleaded the lean condition of my purse,