er. There Dumiger chanced
to meet her. When first he met he loved; and like all men of earnest
purpose, he loved with no common passion. The family were of that kind
so frequently met with in society--affecting great consideration for
those whom fate has placed beneath them, but expressing consideration
in such terms as made it almost an offense, and proving their vanity
in the very manner in which they affected humility. She at once
accepted Dumiger, though some months elapsed before it was possible
for them to marry. At last, by dint of great exertion, they laid aside
sufficient money to commence the world with. Dumiger had the small
apartment, within whose narrow limits his mind expanded to the
contemplation of the vast field of inquiry on which he presumed to
enter, and he transported Marguerite to her new home; there to indulge
in imaginations of love, boundless and visionary, as his were of
ambition.

The day following that which we have described there was a great
annual _fete_ at Dantzic. The free city for the time donned its freest
and most joyous manners; it was one of those days in which honest
burghers, and most especially honest burghermasters, delight,
because they are then enabled to put on their greatness with their
broadcloths; and every flag and inscription in the streets is a
tribute to their past, and an incentive to their renewed exertions.
Fortunately the day rose in more than ordinary brightness; the Mottlaw
and the Radaw, two streams which flow through the center of Dantzic,
reflected the variegated masses of colors worn by those who thronged
their banks; Commerce had for that day deserted the lofty mart and
still loftier warehouse to muse by the side of the river which bore
her richest freights; processions from the neighboring villages
marched with music at their head into the city, bearing the devices of
their various trades, and when the crowd separated to let them pass,
the captains of companies and humbler officials drew themselves up as
they traversed the rude, ill-fashioned pavement of the picturesque
and antique gabled city. It was the _fete_ of the patron saints of
the town,--strange evidence of a future state, even among those who
reflect but little; for there as ever all men turn alike to some
mysterious guardian for protection, and like this city are consecrated
to some faith. In the midst of these happy groups, which were
collected at every corner and filled every gasthof, moved Du