exioned man, for I should say he will do you an injury
if you allow him for to have a chance. You like to study: the
kind of business you would do best in is _doctor_. You face up a
light-complexioned lady; you will, I should say, be able to marry
this lady, though a dark-complexioned man stands in the way. You
must, I should say, be particularly careful to beware of the
dark-complexioned man. You will be married twice; your first wife
will die, but your last wife, I should say, will be likely for to
outlive you. You will have three children, which will be all, I
should say, that you will be likely for to have."

And this was all for the present, except that she told her
visitor that he might draw thirteen cards, and make a wish, which
he did, and she, on carefully examining the cards, told him that
he would certainly have his wish.

Cheered by this last grateful promise, and bidding a mental
defiance to Moon, the traveller left the room. In the reception
chamber he found the model and the black-eyed one just coming to
time for what he should judge was the twenty-seventh round, both
much damaged in the hair, but plucky to the last.

Johannes walked briskly away, feeling that his matrimonial
prospects were brighter now than for many a day, and fully
determined that if, on going further he fared worse, he would
certainly retrace his steps and wed Madame Carzo off-hand.

CHAPTER XI.

In which is set down the prophecy of Madame Leander Lent, of No.
163 Mulberry Street; and how she promised her Customer numerous
Wives and Children.

CHAPTER XI.

MADAME LEANDER LENT, No. 163 MULBERRY STREET.

I have before suggested, in as plain terms as the peculiar nature
of the subject will allow, that these fortune-telling women,
having most of them been prostitutes in their younger days, in
their withered age become professional procuresses, and make a
trade of the betrayal of innocence into the power of Lust and
Lechery. This assertion is so eminently probable that few will be
inclined to dispute it, but I wish to be understood that this is
no matter of mere surmise with me--it is a proven fact. And the
evidences of its truth have been gathered, not alone from the
formal and hurried records of the police courts, but from the
lips of certain inmates of various Magdalen Asylums who have
been reclaimed from their former homes of shame; and from the
mouths of other repentant women, who, under circumstances where
t