THE CUSTOM HOUSE

custom-house.

I followed this man along a rudely-paved street, lit now by a fitful gleam

of moonlight; he brought me to the inn. I offered him sixpence, which he

refused to take; supposing it not enough, I changed it for a shilling; but this

also he declined, speaking rather sharply, in a language to me unknown. A

waiter, coming forward into the lamp-lit inn-passage, reminded me, in bro-

ken English, that my money was foreign money, not current here. I gave

him a sovereign to change. This little matter settled, I asked for a bedroom;

supper I could not take: I was still sea-sick and unnerved, and trembling all

over. How deeply glad I was when the door of a very small chamber at

length closed on me and my exhaustion. Again I might rest: though the

cloud of doubt would be as thick to-morrow as ever; the necessity for exer-