ke
the unpractical man--to imagine all the world is interested in what
interests himself! Now, good night--I'm off for Germany to-morrow
morning; I shall be back here in six weeks, and possibly I may call
and see you again; I wonder whether you'll be still out of place!"
he laughed, as mockingly, as heartlessly as Mephistopheles, and so
laughing, vanished.

Some people, however indifferent they may become after a considerable
space of absence, always contrive to leave a pleasant impression just
at parting; not so Hunsden, a conference with him affected one like a
draught of Peruvian bark; it seemed a concentration of the specially
harsh, stringent, bitter; whether, like bark, it invigorated, I scarcely
knew.

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow; I slept little on the night
after this interview; towards morning I began to doze, but hardly had my
slumber become sleep, when I was roused from it by hearing a noise in
my sitting room, to which my bed-room adjoined--a step, and a shoving of
furniture; the movement lasted barely two minutes; with the closing
of the door it ceased. I listened; not a mouse stirred; perhaps I
had dreamt it; perhaps a locataire had made a mistake, and entered my
apartment instead of his own. It was yet but five o'clock; neither I nor
the day were wide awake; I turned, and was soon unconscious. When I did
rise, about two hours later, I had forgotten the circumstance; the first
thing I saw, however, on quitting my chamber, recalled it; just pushed
in at the door of my sitting-room, and still standing on end, was a
wooden packing-case--a rough deal affair, wide but shallow; a porter
had doubtless shoved it forward, but seeing no occupant of the room, had
left it at the entrance.

"That is none of mine," thought I, approaching; "it must be meant for
somebody else." I stooped to examine the address:--

"Wm. Crimsworth, Esq., No --, -- St., Brussels."

I was puzzled, but concluding that the best way to obtain information
was to ask within, I cut the cords and opened the case. Green baize
enveloped its contents, sewn carefully at the sides; I ripped the
pack-thread with my pen-knife, and still, as the seam gave way, glimpses
of gilding appeared through the widening interstices. Boards and baize
being at length removed, I lifted from the case a large picture, in a
magnificent frame; leaning it against a chair, in a position where the
light from the window fell favourably upon it, I stepped back--