"I am not English, though my ancestors were."
"You are American, then?" said the stranger, looking at him with some curiosity; and from this beginning, their acquaintance ripened fast. The German, regarding his companion as a young man of more intelligence than experience, conversed with an ease and frankness which fast gained upon Morton's confidence. He proved, indeed, a storehouse of information, discoursing of the people, the country, and even the government, with little reserve, and an admirable copiousness and minuteness of knowledge. At length he asked Morton if he had any acquaintance in Austria.
"None, excepting one or two persons at Vienna, to whom I had letters."
"Then you have probably made agreeable acquaintances. The society of Vienna is a very pleasant one."
"My letters were, or purported to be, to _savans_ and literary men."
"There, too, you should have found persons well worth the meeting."
"You do not speak," said the investigating stranger, with a smile, "like one who has been much pleased with his experience."
"I have had no opportunity to judge fairly of the Viennese _savans_."
"They were given me at Paris, in a rather singular way; and, to say the truth, the persons to whom they introduced me were so little to my taste, that after delivering one or two of them, I determined not to use the rest."
"You appear to have been very unfortunate. Will you allow me to ask to whom your letters were addressed?"
"They were written by a person whom I never saw, and were given to me by a friend,--an acquaintance,--of mine, as a means of gaining information about the country; such information as that for which I am indebted to you. I have been a good deal perplexed as to the character of the persons to whom they were written."
Morton mentioned the names of the men he had seen.
The German at first looked puzzled, then amazed, then distrustful.
"Your letters were got for you by a friend of yours?"
"A professor from Berlin, named Speyer,--Henry Speyer."
"Henry Speyer!" repeated the German, in astonishment.
"You were saying that you had lived for some years at Berlin. Perhaps you can tell me who and what he is."
"I know of no Professor Henry Speyer at Berlin."
"This man, I am told, is well known as a philologist."