hile by the two women
who conversed with each other upon the relative merits of engines
No. 18 and 27, and with a long discussion as to the comparative
personal beauty of "Tom" and "Dick," who, it seemed, belonged
respectively to those two mechanical constituents of our Fire
Department.

At the end of that time the Irish girl, who had succeeded in
establishing "Dick's" claim to her satisfaction, arose and
invited the stranger to the room of Madame Morrow.

He passed up a narrow flight of stairs, the condition of which,
as to dirt, was concealed by no friendly carpet; then he sailed
into a front parlor which was furnished elegantly, and perhaps
gorgeously, with carpets, mirrors, sofas, and all the usual
requirements of a lady's apartment.

Madame herself appeared at the door. She is a tall,
sallow-looking woman, with a complexion the color of old
parchment: with light brown eyes and light hair; being attired in
a handsome delaine dress of half-mourning, and decorated with a
costly cameo pin and ear-drops, she looked not unlike a servant
out for a holiday, making a sensation in her mistress's finery.

She led her lovely visitor into a little closet-like room, in
which were a bureau, two chairs, a table, and a small stand,
covered with a number of her business hand-bills and a pack of
cards. She asked first: "What month was you born?" On receiving
the answer, the Astonisher took a book from the bureau and read
as follows: "A person born in this month is of an amiable and
frank disposition, benevolent, and an amiable and desirable
partner in the marriage relation. Your lucky days are Tuesdays
and Thursdays, on which days you may enter on any undertaking, or
attempt any enterprise with a good prospect of success." Then she
took up the cards again, and after the usual shuffling and
cutting, the Astonisher fired away as follows.

"You face luck, you face prosperity, you face true love and
disinterested affection, you face a speedy marriage, you face a
letter which will come in three days and will contain pleasant
news--you face a ring, you face a present of jewelry done up in a
small package; the latter will come within two hours, two days,
two weeks, or two months--you face an agreeable surprise, you face
the death of a friend, you face the seven of clubs which is the
luckiest card in the pack--you face two gentlemen with a view to
matrimony, one of whom has brown hair and brown eyes, and the
other has lighter hair a