ep and sly),
"Our pudgy Master Schrein
No longer drinks his wine,
And, why?--because he's dead."'

"When the sparkling wit of this roguish epigram had been sufficiently
admired, I treated them to the following one in addition--

"'STINGING REPLY.
'Of Hans's book the folks make much ado;
"Say, neighbour Hamm, hast read the wonder yet?"
Thus Humm to Hamm: and Hamm (a joker he)
Said, "Faith, good Humm, I have not read it yet."'

"Everybody laughed heartily, but the lady of the house shook a minatory
forefinger at me, saying, 'Ah, wicked scoffer! Is nothing to escape
that scathing wit of yours?'

"The clever man shook hands with me as he passed me, saying--

"'Admirably done. Much obliged to you.'

"The young poet turned his back upon me with much contempt. But the
young lady who had shed a few tears over 'Italia's Marvels,' came to
me, and blushing, as she cast down her eyes, said the maidenly,
virginal heart was more disposed to open to the sense of sweet sadness
than to the comic; and she begged me to give her a copy of the first
poem I had read. She said she had felt so curiously happy and creepy
when she heard it. I promised to give it to her, and I kissed the
charming young lady's sufficiently pretty hand with all the appropriate
rapture of a bard duly appreciated by beauty, with the sole intention
of angering the poet, who cast upon me glances as of an infuriated
basilisk."

"It is strange enough," said Vincenz, "that, without being in the
smallest degree aware of it, you have spoken what may be called a
Goldsmith's prologue to my story. Of course you notice my pretty
allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet, and his question, 'Is this a
prologue, or the posy of a ring?' What I mean is, that your prologue
consists of what you have said about the irritated poet; for I am
greatly mistaken if a poet of that kind is not one of the principal
characters in my story; which story I am now going to begin, and I
don't intend to stop it until the last word of it is out. And that last
word is just as hard to speak as the first."

Vincenz read--

THE KING'S BETROTHED.
(A Story Sketched from Life.)

CHAPTER I.

WHICH GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS CHARACTERS, AND THEIR MUTUAL
RELATIONS TO EACH OTHER, AND PREPARES THE WAY, PLE