hing drives me mad, it's to
think that all them blasted figures is scattered about the world, and
one does n't know at what minute they 'll turn up against you!"

"Nay, father," said she, smiling sadly; "You once took an interest in
them great as my own."

"It only shows, then, how poverty can break a man's spirit."

Discussions like these, once or twice a week, only confirmed Dalton in
his dislike to his old abode, and Nelly at last saw that all resistance
to his will was hopeless. At last he peremptorily ordered her to give
Hans notice of their intended removal; for he had fixed upon a house in
the Lichtenthal Alley to suit them exactly. It was a villa which had a
few months before been purchased and fitted up by a young French count,
whose gains at the gaming table had been enormous. Scarcely, however,
had he taken possession of his sumptuous abode, than "luck" turned; he
lost everything in the world, and finished his career by suicide. In
a colony of gamblers, where superstition has an overweening influence,
none could be found rash enough to succeed to so ill-omened a
possession; and thus, for nigh half the season, the house continued shut
up and unoccupied. Dalton, whose mind was strongly tinctured with fears
of this kind, yet felt a species of heroism in showing that he was not
to be deterred by the dangers that others avoided; and as Abel Kraus, to
whom the property now belonged, continually assured him "it was just the
house for him," Peter overcame his scruples, and went to see it.

Although of small extent, it was princely in its arrangements. Nothing
that French taste and elegance could supply was wanting, and it was a
perfect specimen of that costly splendor which in our own day rivals
all the gorgeous magnificence of "the Regency." Indeed, it must be
owned that honest Peter thought it far too fine to live in; he trod the
carpets with a nervous fear of crushing the embroidery, and he sat down
on the brocaded sofa with as much terror as though it were glass. How he
was ever to go asleep in a bed where Cupid and angels were sculptured in
such endless profusion, he couldn't imagine; and he actually shrank back
with shame from his own face, as he surveyed it within the silver frame
of a costly toilet-glass.

Such were his impressions as he walked through the rooms with Abel, and
saw, as the covers were removed from lustres and mirrors, some new and
more dazzling object at each moment reveal itself. He liste