s."

For it is always happiness to me to think of good old times when I
was glad. All drank my health, _Romaneskaes_, together, with a
shout,--all save H., who said he had already had too much.
Good-looking gypsy, that! You'd know him anywhere for Romany, he is
so dark,--_avec l'air indefinissable du vrai Bohemien_. He promised
to drink my health another time.

As we sat, a gentleman came in below, wishing to have his fortune
told. I remember to have read that the Pythoness of Delphian oracle
prepared herself for _dukkerin_, or presaging, by taking a few drops
of cherry-laurel water. (I have had it prescribed for my eyes as R
_aq. laur. cerasi. fiat lotio_,--possibly to enable me to see into
the future.) Perhaps it was the cherry-brandy beloved of British
matrons and Brighton school-girls, taken at Mutton's. _Mais revenons
a nos moutons_. The old mother had taken, not cherry-laurel water,
nor even cherry-brandy, but joly good ale, and olde, which, far from
fitting her to reveal the darksome lore of futurity, had rendered her
loath to leave the festive board of the present. Wrathful was the
sybil, furious as the Vala when waked by Odin, angry as Thor when he
missed his hammer, to miss her merriment. "May the devil take the
old dog for coming when we are eating, and when thou art here, my
Britannia! Little good fortune will he hear this day. Evil shall be
the best I'll promise him." Thus spake the sorceress, and out she
went to keep her word. Truly it was a splendid picture this of "The
Enraged Witch," as painted by Hexenmeister von Teufel, of
Hollenstadt,--her viper eyes flashing infernal light and most
unchristian fire, shaking _les noirs serpents de ses cheveux_, as she
went forth. I know how, in an instant, her face was beautiful with
welcome, smiling like a Neapolitan at a cent; but the poor believer
caught it hot, all the same, and had a sleepless night over his
future fate. I wonder if the Pythoness of old, when summoned from a
_petit souper_, or a holy prophet called out of bed of a cold night,
to decide by royal command on the fate of Israel, ever "took it out"
on the untimely king by promising him a lively, unhappy time of it.
Truly it is fine to be behind the scenes and see how they work the
oracle. For the gentleman who came to consult my witch was a man o