33. CHAPTER XXXIII.
Whose nature is so far from doing evil
That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy.
— King Lear.
Early the next morning, Morton was writing in his room,
when Vinal came in.
“Are you still bent on going off to-day?”
“Yes, within an hour.”
“I was passing last evening by Professor Speyer's lodgings,
and, seeing a light at his window, went in. I told him that
I had come to find him in the afternoon with an old acquaintance
of mine, who was going to the Austrian provinces, and
that I had advised you to ask introductions from him to his
friends there. He was a good deal interested, as I knew he
would be, in what I told him about the objects of your journey.
`I'm very sorry,' he said, `that I did not see your friend,
for I could have given him letters which I don't doubt would
have been of great use to him. But wait a few minutes,'
said he, `and I'll write a few lines now.' Here they are,”
continued Vinal, giving to Morton four or five notes of introduction.
“You can put them in your pocket, and use
them or not, as you may find convenient.”
“I'm very much obliged to you,” said Morton. “Tell
Professor Speyer that I am greatly indebted to his kindness,
and shall be happy to avail myself of it. You are looking
very pale; are you ill?”
“No, not at all,” stammered Vinal, “but, what is nearly as
bad, I have been kept awake all night with a raging toothache.”
He had been awake all night, but not with toothache.
“There is one consolation for that trouble; cold steel will
cure it.”
“Yes, but the remedy is none of the pleasantest. I won't
interrupt you any longer. Good by. I wish you a pleasant
journey.”
He shook hands with Morton, and, pressing his haggard
cheek, as if to stifle the pain, left the room.
With a new letter from Edith Leslie before him, Morton
saw the world in rose tint. Happiness blinded him, and he
was in no mood to doubt of human nature. He blamed himself
for his harsh opinions of Vinal.
“It's very generous of him to interest himself at this time,
in my affairs. `'Tis my nature's plague to spy into abuses.'
I have misjudged him. He is a better fellow than I ever took
him for.”
The notes were written in a peculiarly neat, small hand,
and bore the signature of Henry Speyer. They all spoke of
Morton as interested in a common object with the person
addressed; but, with this exception, there was nothing in
them which drew his attention, especially as they were in
German, a language with which he was not very familiar.
As for the circumstance of their having been given at all to a
person whom the writer had never seen, Morton accounted
for it on the score of the good natured professor's desire to
oblige his valued friend Vinal.
