by this time. Shall we just drop in, then,
at Madame von Geysiger's? It is the latest house here, and every one
goes there to finish the evening."

"They are all strangers to me," I replied, "and I am entirely under your
orders."

"Then Madame von Geysiger's be it," said he, rising.

As we went along, he told me that the lady to whose house we were going
had been, some thirty-five or forty years ago, the great prima donna
of Europe. She was also the most celebrated beauty of her time; and by
these combined attractions had so captivated a rich merchant of Hamburg
that he married her, bequeathing to her on his death-bed the largest
fortune of that wealthy city.

"They count it by millions and tens of millions," said he; "but what
matter to us?--at least to me?--for I have been refused by her some
half-dozen times; and indeed now am under the heaviest recognizance
never to repeat my proposal. If you, however, should like to
adventure--"

"Oh, excuse me," said I, laughing. "Not even all the marcobrunner and
champagne I have been drinking could give hardihood for such a piece of
impudence."

"Why not?" cried he. "You are young, good-looking, and of a fashionable
exterior. You are a stranger, besides,--and that is a great point; for
she is well weary of Hamburg and Hamburgers."

I stopped him at once by saying that I was by far too conscious of the
indignity attached to my career to aspire to the eminence he spoke of.

"And too proud to marry an old woman for her money! Can't you add that?"
said he, laughing. "Well, there we differ. I am neither ashamed of the
'espionage,' nor should I be averse to the marriage. To say truth, my
dear Gervois, when I have dined in a splendid salon hung round with
the best pieces of Cuyp, Wouvermans, and Jansens; when I have seen the
dessert set forth in a golden service, of which the great Schnyders over
the fireplace was but a faint copy; when I have supped my Mocha out of a
Sevres cup worth more than its full of gold louis, and rested myself
on the fairest tapestries of France, with every sense entranced by
luxury,--I do find it excessively hard to throw my mantle over my
shoulders, and trudge home through the rain and mud to resume the sorry
existence that for an hour I had abandoned."

"There lies the whole question," said I; "since, for my part, I could
not throw off the identity, even under such captivations as you speak
of."

He looked at me very fixedly as I said this,--s