intment in the cards for
you." She then informed her customer that she always answered
unerringly two questions, which he was now at liberty to
propound. He made a couple of inquiries relative to his future
business prospects, and received in reply the promise of most
gratifying results.

Having then, as he supposed, got his money's worth, he was about
to take his leave, when she interrupted him thus:

"I have a charm for securing good luck to whoever wears it; you
can wear it, and your most intimate friend would never suspect
it; my charge is one dollar for gentlemen; a great many have
bought it of me; many merchants who were on the point of failing
have come to me and possessed this charm, and been saved; you had
better possess it, for it will be sure to bring you good luck; if
you possess it, you will always be successful in business; Mr.
Lynch of Mott Street possessed it, and has been very lucky ever
since, besides a great number I could name; my advice to you is,
possess the charm."

She then put her elbows on her knees after the manner of a Fulton
Market apple-pedler, in which classic attitude she awaited an
answer. The decision was not favorable to her hopes; for the
economical customer concluded not to invest in the charm,
although it had brought such excellent fortune to Mr. Lynch of
Mott Street. He departed, encountering again in his progress the
weak-eyed one, who met him with a smile, escorted him to the door
with a great laugh, and dismissed him with a joyous grin.

CHAPTER XVII.

Treats of the peculiarities of several Witches in a single
batch.

CHAPTER XVII.

A BATCH OF WITCHES.

The fortune-tellers so elaborately described in the foregoing
chapters are by no means the only ones in New York, engaged in
that lucrative occupation; there are several others who were
visited by the Individual, but who in their surroundings approach
so nearly to those already set down, that a detailed description
of each would necessarily be a somewhat monotonous repetition. So
the prophecy only of each one is here writ down, with a few words
suggestive of the character of the immediate neighborhood,
leaving the imaginative reader to fill up the blank himself, or
to turn back to some foregoing chapter for a picture of a similar
locality, if he prefers it ready-made to his hands.

MADAME DE BELLINI, No. 159 FORSYTH STREET.

For the benefit of those not familiar with the streets of New
York, it is