CALAIS. PERCEIVED that fomething darken'd the paffage more than myself, as I ftepp'd along it to my room; it was effectually Monf. Deffein, the master of the hôtel, who had just returned from vefpers, and, with his hat under his arm, was moft complaifantly following me, to put me in mind of my wants. I had wrote myfelf pretty well out of conceit with the Defobligeant; and Monf. Deffein fpeaking of it, with a fhrug, as if it would no way fuit me, it immediately ftruck my fancy that it belong'd to fome innocent Traveller, who, on his return home, had left it to Monf. Deffein's honour to make the most of. Four months had elapfed fince it had finished its career of Europe in the corner of Monf. Deffein's coachyard; and having fallied out from thence but a vampt-up business at the first, though it had been twice taken to pieces on Mount Sennis, it had not profited much by its adventures-but by none fo little as the standing so many months unpitied in the corner of Monf. Deffein's coachyard. Much indeed was not to be faid for it but fomething might and when a few words will rescue mifery out of her diftrefs, I hate the man who can be a churl of them. -Now -Now was I the mafter of this hôtel, faid I, laying the point of my fore-finger on Monf. Deffein's breast, I would inevitably make a point of getting rid of this unfortunate Defobligeant-itstands fwinging reproaches at you every time you pafs by it. Mon Dieu! faid Monf. DeffeinI have no intereft-Except the intereft, faid I, which men of a certain turn of mind take, Monf. Deffein, in their own fenfations-I'm perfuaded, to a man who feels for others as well as for himself, every rainy night, difguife it as you will, muft caft a damp upon your fpirits-You fuffer, Monf. Deffein, as much as the machine I have always obferved, when there is as much four as fweet in a compliment, that an Englishman is eternally at a lofs within himself, whether to take it or let it alone: a Frenchman never is Monf. Deffein made me a bow. : C'est bien vrai, faid he-But in this cafe I fhould only exchange one difquietude for another, and with lofs: figure to yourself, my dear Sir, that in giving you a chaife which would fall to pieces before you had got half way to Paris-figure to yourfelf how much I fhould fuffer, in giving an ill impreffion of myfelf to a man of honour, and lying at the mercy, as I must do, d'un homme d'efprit. The |