[Pg 97] [Pg 97] [Pg 96] [Pg 96] [Pg 99] [Pg 99] [Pg 98] [Pg 98] MARRIED ABROAD. AN AMERICAN ROMANCE OF THE QUARTIER LATIN. PART I. TEMPTATION. To say that Ralph Flare was "lonesome" would convey a feeble idea of his condition. Four months in England had gone by wearily enough; but in this great city of Paris, where he might as well have had no tongue at all, for the uses he could put it to, he pined and chafed—and finally swore. An oath, if not relief in itself, conduces to that effect, and it happened in this case that a stranger heard it. "You are English," said the stranger, turning shortly upon Ralph Flare. "I am not," replied that youth, "I am an American." "Then we are countrymen," cried the other. "Have you dwelt long in the Hôtel du Hibou?" Ralph Flare stated that he hadn't and that he had, and that he was bored and sick of it, and had resolved to go back to the Republic, and fling away his life in its armies.[Pg 100] [Pg 100] "Pooh! pooh!" shouted the other, "I see your trouble—you have no acquaintances. It is six o'clock; come with me to dinner, and you shall know half of Paris, men and women."
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