nd blue eyes--they are both thinking of
you at the present time, but the nearest one you face is the one
with light eyes--your marriage runs within six or nine months."

There was very much more to the same effect, but as Johannes was
pining all this time for a look at his future husband, he did not
pay the strictest attention to it. Finally, when she had finished
talking, she said, "Step this way and see your future husband."

This was the eventful moment.

The disguised one went to the table and there beheld a pine box,
about the size of an ordinary candle-box, though shallower; it
was unpainted, and decidedly unornamental as an article of
furniture. In one end of it was an aperture about the size of the
eye-hole of a telescope; this was carefully covered with a small
black curtain. This mystic contrivance was placed upon a table so
low that the husband-seeker was compelled to go on his knees to
get his eye down low enough to see through. He accomplished this
feat without grumbling, although his knees were scarified by the
whalebones which surrounded him. The Astonisher then drew aside
the little curtain with a grand flourish, and her customer beheld
an indistinct figure of a bloated face with a mustache, with
black eyes and black hair; it was a hang-dog, thief-like face,
and one that he would not have passed in the street without
involuntarily putting his hands on his pockets to assure himself
that all was right. But he felt that he had no hope of a future
husband if he did not accept this one, and he made up his mind to
be reconciled to the match.

This contrivance for showing the "future husband" is sometimes
called the Magic Mirror, and may be procured at any optician's
for a dollar and a quarter. The "future husband" may of course be
varied to suit circumstances, by merely shifting the pictures at
one end of the instrument; or a horse or a dog might be
substituted with equal propriety and probability.

Disappointed, and sick at heart and stomach, the Cash Customer
bore away for home, and accomplished the return voyage without
disaster. He didn't so much mind the unexpected difference in the
personal attractions of Madame Morrow from what he had hoped, for
he had been rather accustomed to disappointments of that sort of
late, but he couldn't see that his admission to the camp of the
enemy had enabled him to spy out anything of particular
advantage to him in future operations. So he cogitated and
mournfully