Read it through once

In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, and wanted to know about a stranger he had just met at a hotel, I give below the account of a curious character I once knew at Angels; and I beg to assure the reader that what follows is the simple truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me—well, I won't say anything more about it; but it is the truth, and the facts are these: