ret made up her mind to be
a peeress, I had no doubt that the subject of her choice was both
ill-favored and awkward, and had cheek-bones like a Tartar. While
reading of the great antiquity of his family (which reached obscurity in
the thirteenth century), I set it down as established that the first
of his unknown predecessors was a bare-legged thief, and, at the very
moment that I imagined Anna was smiling on him, and retracting
her coquettish denial, I could have sworn that he spoke with an
unintelligible border accent, and that he had red hair!

The torment of such pictures grew to be intolerable, and I rushed into
the open air for relief. How long or whither I wandered I know not; but
on the morning of the following day I found I was seated in a guinguette
near the base of Montmartre, eagerly devouring a roll and refreshing
myself with sour wine. When a little recovered from the shock of
discovering myself in a situation so novel (for having no investment
in guinguettes, I had not taken sufficient interest in these popular
establishments ever to enter one before), I had leisure to look about
and survey the company. Some fifty Frenchmen of the laboring
classes were drinking on every side, and talking with a vehemence of
gesticulation and a clamor that completely annihilated thought. This
then, thought I, is a scene of popular happiness. These creatures are
excellent fellows, enjoying themselves on liquor that has not paid the
city duty, and perhaps I may seize upon some point that favors my system
among spirits so frank and clamorous. Doubtless if any one among them is
in possession of any important social secret it will not fail to
escape him here. From meditations of this philosophical character I
was suddenly aroused by a violent blow before me, accompanied with an
exclamation in very tolerable English of the word,

"King!"

On the centre of the board which did the office of a table, and directly
beneath my eyes, lay a clenched fist of fearful dimensions, that in
color and protuberances bore a good deal of resemblance to a freshly
unearthed Jerusalem artichoke. Its sinews seemed to be cracking with
tension, and the whole knob was so expressive of intense pugnacity that
my eyes involuntarily sought its owner's face. I had unconsciously taken
my seat directly opposite a man whose stature was nearly double that
of the compact, bustling sputtering, and sturdy little fellows who were
bawling on every side of us, and