Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 1.djvu/32

 what had happened to me, railed against and cursed the villain who had robbed me, but nobody would lend me money—-scarcity of cash, the backwardness of the debtors; alas! these and a thousand other obstacles prevented my friends from assisting me. I went home in a gloomy melancholy mood, and did not know what to do. It struck one, the dinner was on table, but I could not eat. I was standing in my room with a downcast look, and musing on my distress, a son of misery and a slave of cruel necessity. I cannot tell how long I had been in that desponding situation, when a gentle knocking at my door roused me suddenly from my reverie: I exclaimed in an agony, come in! The door opened, and I was thunderstruck when I beheld the unknown gentleman before me. My soul was filled with rapture, I ran almost frantic with joy towards the stranger, clasped him in my arms, and exclaimed, "Have you, have you found it?"

"I have not!" answered he.