"I do not know," said the pilgrim, with perfect simplicity.

We did, however, follow the same road, and were not overtaken, as I
partly apprehended, by the keepers of any lunatic asylum in pursuit
of a stray patient. Perhaps the stranger felt as much doubt of my
sanity as I did of his, though certainly with less justice, since I
was fully aware of my own extravagances, while he acted as wildly,
and deemed it heavenly wisdom. We were a singular couple,
strikingly contrasted, yet curiously assimilated, each of us
remarkable enough by himself, and doubly so in the other's company.
Without any formal compact, we kept together day after day till our
union appeared permanent. Even had I seen nothing to love and
admire in him, I could never have thought of deserting one who
needed me continually; for I never knew a person; not even a woman,
so unfit to roam the world in solitude as he was,--so painfully shy,
so easily discouraged by slight obstacles, and so often depressed by
a weight within himself.

I was now far from my native place, but had not yet stepped before
the public. A slight tremor seized me whenever I thought of
relinquishing the immunities of a private character, and giving
every man, and for money too, the right which no man yet possessed,
of treating me with open scorn. But about a week after contracting
the above alliance I made my bow to an audience of nine persons,
seven of whom hissed me in a very disagreeable manner, and not
without good cause. Indeed, the failure was so signal that it would
have been mere swindling to retain the money, which had been paid on
my implied contract to give its value of amusement. So I called in
the doorkeeper, bade him refund the whole receipts, a mighty sum and