The Fortunate Bath

Heaven has to all allotted soon or late
Some lucky revolution of their fate;
Whose motions if we watch and guide with skill
(For human good depends on human will)
Our fortune rolls as from a smooth descent.
And from the first impression takes its bent.
Now, now she meets you with a glorious prize,
And spreads her locks before her as she files.

Dryden

Meanwhile, what had our young adventurer been doing in all these months
between September and June?

Traverse, with his two hundred dollars, had set out for New Orleans
about the first of October.

But by the time he had paid his traveling expenses and fitted himself
out with a respectable suit of professional black and a few necessary
books, his little capital had diminished three-quarters.

So that when he found himself settled in his new office, in a highly
respectable quarter of the city, he had but fifty dollars and a few
dimes left.

A portion of this sum was expended in a cheap sofa-bedstead, a closed
washstand and a spirit lamp coffee boiler, for Traverse determined to
lodge in his office and board himself--"which will have this additional
advantage," said the cheerful fellow to himself--"for besides saving me
from debt, it will keep me always on hand for calls."

The fever, though it was October, had scarcely abated; indeed, on the
contrary, it seemed to have revived and increased in virulency in
consequence of the premature return of many people who had fled on its
first appearance, and who in coming back too soon to the infected
atmosphere, were less able to withstand contagion than those who
remained.