body to undertake any thing,
could a few palpitations of your stupid heart make you tremble; and the
offences against honor, or misfortunes, why should a rational fellow
care, for either? Did you feel it in your head when they but lately
called you a cheat and a scoundrel? Or did it give you a pain in your
stomach, when the bailiff came to eject you from your house? Tell me,
where was it you felt pain?"

"In my heart," replied Peter, putting his hand on his beating breast,
for he felt as if his heart was anxiously turning within him.

"Excuse me for saying so, but you have thrown away many hundred florins
on vile beggars and other rabble; what has it profited you? They have
wished you blessings and health for it; well, have you grown the
healthier for that? For half that money you might have kept a
physician. A blessing, a fine blessing forsooth, when one is
distrained upon and ejected! And what was it that urged you to put
your hand into your pocket, as often as a beggar held out his broken
hat?--Why your heart again, and ever your heart, neither your eyes, nor
your tongue, nor your arms, nor your legs, but your heart; you have, as
the proverb truly says, taken too much to heart."

"But how can we accustom ourselves to act otherwise? I take, at this
moment, every possible pains to suppress it, and yet my heart
palpitates and pains me."

"You, indeed, poor fellow!" cried Michel, laughing; "you can do nothing
against it; but give me this scarcely palpitating thing, and you will
see how comfortable you will then feel."

"My heart to you?" cried Peter, horrified. "Why, then, I must die on
the spot! Never!"

"Yes, if one of your surgeons would operate upon you and take out your
heart, you must indeed die; but with me it is a different thing; just
come in here and convince yourself."

Rising at these words, he opened the door of a chamber and took Peter
in. On stepping over the threshold, his heart contracted convulsively,
but he minded it not, for the sight that presented itself was singular
and surprising. On several shelves glasses were standing, filled with
a transparent liquid, and each contained a heart. All were labelled
with names which Peter read with curiosity; there was the heart of the
bailiff in F., that of fat Hezekiel, that of the "king of the
ball-room," that of the ranger; there were the hearts of six usurious
corn-merchants, of eight recruiting officers, of three money-brokers;
in shor