o
in his youth preferred beauty to ambition, and glory to gold. For ten
years after attaining manhood I struggled on, an outcast from my family,
in poverty and humiliation, without friends, and often without bread. At
the end of five more years I was a great man, and those who had
neglected, and starved, and scorned me, came to bow down and worship.
But the beauty I had adored was dust, and the fire of youthful hope
quenched in the bitter waters of science. For ten years since I have
wandered over the earth. I am rich; I may say my wealth is boundless;
for I have but to shake a few fancies from this brain, to trace a few
ciphers with this hand, and they become gold at my command. Yet, mark my
words, my children! One look of love is, in my esteem, worth more than
all the applause of an age, or all the wealth of an empire!" The dark
stranger paused for an instant, as if in meditation, then abruptly
continued: "_I_ take your inheritance, fair child!--_I_ rob the orphan
and the fatherless!"--and the smile of disdainful pride which followed
these words said more than whole piles of parchment renunciations as to
his intention.

Involuntarily the orphan and Bernard seized each a hand of the
mysterious man beside them, who, silently drawing the two hands
together, and uniting them in his own, said, gently, "Love one another
as you will, my young friends, yet spare at times a kind thought for the
old wandering poet! Not a word! I understand you, though you do not
understand yourselves. It is as easy to tell a fortune as to give it."

And _was_ the prophecy realized? asks a curious reader. But no answer is
needed; for if the prophecy were false, why record it? And, pray, who
was the stranger, after all? Too curious reader!--it is one thing to
tell stories, and another to commit breaches of confidence.

A FRENCHMAN IN LONDON.

BY JULES DE PREMARY.

One of the principal causes of surprise to me in walking along the
streets of London, has been to see myself all at once become a curious
animal. I did not think that I had any of the qualities necessary for
such a thing, being neither humpbacked nor clubfooted, neither a giant
nor a dwarf. Thus, when on the day of my arrival I went along
Regent-street, and heard the exclamations and laughter of the crowd on
seeing me, I examined myself from head to foot, to ascertain the cause
of the unhoped-for success which I obtained in England. I even felt all
up my back, thinking tha