to be
speedily married, and you will enjoy the greatest
happiness of matrimonial bliss and good luck through
your whole life. I will also show the likeness of
absent friends and relations, and I will tell so true
all the concerns of life that you cannot help being
astonished. No charge, if not satisfied. Gentlemen not
admitted. No. 76 Broome street, near Columbia."

There was but one thing in this that troubled the "Individual"
with any particularly sharp pangs. He intended to marry the
Astonisher, but he was a little bothered what to do with the
seven daughters, for of course the Madame would not fail to
follow the excellent example of her revered mother, and would
never stop short of the mystic number.

He finally concluded that all his duties as a father would be
faithfully performed if he taught them to read, write, and play
on the piano, and then gave them each a sewing-machine to begin
the world with. He did think of bringing them up for the ballet,
but their success in that profession being somewhat dependent on
the size and symmetry of their dancing implements, he felt it
would be improper to positively determine on that line of
business before he had been favored with a sight of the young
ladies. Reserving, therefore, his decision on this knotty point
until time should further develop the subject, he prepared for
the unsexing which was indicated as an inevitable preliminary to
a visit to Madame Morrow, by the sentence "Gentlemen not
admitted."

He proposed to get himself up in a way that would slightly
astonish the Madame herself, although she had faithfully promised
in her advertisement to astonish him. He would have been willing
to wager a small sum that with all her witchcraft she would be
unable to keep that promise, for in the regular course of his
business, he had become so accustomed to marvels, wonders, and
miracles, that the upheaval of a volcano in the Park wouldn't
discompose him unless it singed his whiskers. He had a strong
desire, however, to realize the old sensation of astonishment,
and he was of the opinion that the "likeness of his future
husband" would accomplish that feat if anything could.

Heroic was Johannes, and withal ingenious, and this then was his
wonderful plan.

He would visit this Madame Morrow, not by proxy, but in his own
proper person; if not as a man, then as a woman; yes, he would
petticoat himself up to the required dimensions, if