inding gracefully and
symmetrically through me are of Venetian origin, and the mode of making
them--once a trade secret--was first discovered in that "city of an
hundred isles." I was not baked in a hot oven, as my humbler brethren
are, but melted and cleared again and again in a far fiercer heat, until
my nature became refined and purified, and my clear colour green as the
sea which glides like a glittering network through and round Venice.

"Nor was all this trouble taken with me only that I might become a mere
child's toy, like these dingy, earthen globes; no! I was designed to
become a member of a charming party, who lived in separate apartments,
on a large mahogany board, and our party was elegantly called for that
reason by the French name of _Solitaire_! Some of my family were
crimson, some blue, some striped like sea-shells, some flaked with gold,
but all beautiful. We lived for a long time appropriately enough in the
Crystal Palace, where we lay with hosts of other brilliant things, too
numerous to mention, on a long counter in the Bohemian Court. I may say,
without vanity, that we were the objects of admiration to thousands, and
many of our sparkling host were carried off like trophies, to adorn the
mansions of the great and noble.

"My destination was at first a fortunate one; but, alas, in common with
yourselves, I have also met with reverses in life; and on _me_, poor
little me, Fate seems to have poured out all her hardest punishment. We
were purchased at first by Lord Latimer for his little daughter Florine,
and for a while laid on inlaid tables and were only handled by fair and
jewelled fingers. I need not enter into the plan of the game of
Solitaire, which had just then come out fresh, and was universally
popular, for, as in many other cases what is _play_ to others is _work_
to us. I had nothing to complain of, however, for my fair young mistress
was very gentle and lady-like, and skilled in the game, so that we were
daintily used and carefully kept. Indeed while we breathed the perfumed
air of that luxurious boudoir, sweetened with the rarest exotic flowers,
and ornamented with every graceful trinket and toy that could please its
owner, our life passed like a fairy dream. But sweet and amiable as
Florine was, she too had her faults, and a love of change and novelty
was one of them. When she had possessed us a brief year, she grew weary
of us, and passed on to other amusements. Her whole thoughts were