ly tabernacle, which is somewhat
the worse for wear, although from the fossil remains of bygone
beauty, still visible in her ancient countenance, her customer
inclined to the belief that in some remote age she was comely and
pleasant to the eye. He founded this hypothesis upon the brown
hair and hazel eyes which time has spared.

In respect to personal cleanliness, the Individual regrets to say
that the Madame was not in every respect what a critical observer
would wish to see; her hands and arms were in a condition which
would naturally lead to the belief that the Croton Corporation
had cut off the water; and under each of her finger-nails was a
dark-colored deposit, which may have been snuff, but looked like
something dirtier. She was dressed in a light striped calico
dress, over which was a black velvet mantle trimmed with fur,
and on her head was a portentous head-dress which was fearfully
and wonderfully made of shabby black lace; her face was in the
same condition as her hands and arms, as was also her neck, which
was only visible to the upper edge of the collar-bone--further
deponent saith not.

She more nearly approached the Cash Customer's notion of the
Witch of Endor, than any other lady he had ever heard mentioned
in polite society. She at once prepared for business.

She seated herself behind a small stand, dusty with snuff, on
which were a number of little books on astrology, written in
French and German, and as dirty and as fragrant as if they had
been some kind of clumsy vegetable which had been grown in a
tobacco plantation.

She asked her visitor if he spoke French or German, to which he
replied that, had he been conversant with all the languages
invented at the Babel smash-up, he would on this occasion, for
particular reasons, prefer to confine himself to English. He also
ventured an inquiry as to terms, upon which she produced a card
containing a list of her charges, printed in English, French, and
German. He learned from this dingy document that the prices of
telling fortunes by lines of the hand, by cards, and by the
stars, varied in amount from one to five dollars. The Individual
concluded that one dollar's worth would suffice, and, approaching
the little table, he announced the result of his cogitations. The
enchantress, who was so saturated with snuff and tobacco that
every time her customer looked her in the face he sneezed, then
brought a pack of very filthy cards, which were covered ove