hape and unknown character before her.
Huge braziers lie convenient, on one of which, amidst a few coals, a
feeble flame may be seen to struggle. The atmosphere is impregnated
with a strong but not ungrateful perfume, and through its vapors
objects appear with some indistinctness. A circular plate of brass or
copper--it could not well be any more precious metal--rests beneath
the eye and finger of the woman. It is covered with strange and mystic
characters, which she seems busily to explore, as if they had a real
significance in her mind. She evidently united the highest departments
of her art with its humblest offices; and possessed those nobler
aspirations of the soul, which, during the middle ages, elevated in
considerable degree the professors of necromancy. But our purpose is
not now to determine her pretensions. We have but to exhibit and to
ascertain a small specimen of her skill in the vulgar business of
fortune-telling--an art which will continue to be received among men,
to a greater or less extent, so long as they shall possess a hope
which they cannot gratify, and feel a superstition which they cannot
explain. Our gipsy expects a visiter. She hears his footstep. The door
opens at her bidding and a stranger makes his appearance. He is a tall
and well made man, of stern and gloomy countenance, which is half
concealed beneath the raised foldings of his cloak. His beard, of
enormous length, is seen to stream down upon his breast; but his
cheek is youthful, and his eye is eagerly and anxiously bright. But
for a certain repelling something in his glance, he might be
considered a very handsome man--perhaps by many persons he was thought
so. He advanced with an air of dignity and power. His deportment and
manner--and when he spoke, his voice--all seemed to denote a person
accustomed to command. The woman did not look up as he approached--on
the contrary she seemed more intent than ever in the examination of
the strange characters before her. But a curious spectator might have
seen that a corner of her eye, bright with an intelligence that looked
more like cunning than wisdom, was suffered to take in all of the face
and person of the visiter that his muffling costume permitted to be
seen.

"Mother," said the stranger, "I am here."

"You say not who you are," answered the woman.

"Nor shall say," was the abrupt reply of the stranger. "That, you
said, was unnecessary to your art--to the solution of the questions
th