Chapter 5 - Page 2

empire, asleep or
awake."

"Lord bless us!" said the lady, "he's a prophet, sure enough."

"As surely," continued the Recluse, "as thou art a woman.--A woman!--I
should have said a lady--a fine lady. You asked me to tell your
fortune--it is a simple one; an endless chase through life after follies
not worth catching, and, when caught, successively thrown away--a chase,
pursued from the days of tottering infancy to those of old age upon his
crutches. Toys and merry-makings in childhood--love and its absurdities
in youth--spadille and basto in age, shall succeed each other as
objects of pursuit--flowers and butterflies in spring--butterflies
and thistle-down in summer--withered leaves in autumn and winter--all
pursued, all caught, all flung aside.--Stand apart; your fortune is
said."

"All CAUGHT, however," retorted the laughing fair one, who was a cousin
of Miss Vere's; "that's something, Nancy," she continued, turning to
the timid damsel who had first approached the Dwarf; "will you ask your
fortune?"

"Not for worlds," said she, drawing back; "I have heard enough of
yours."

"Well, then," said Miss Ilderton, offering money to the Dwarf, "I'll pay
for mine, as if it were spoken by an oracle to a princess."

"Truth," said the Soothsayer, "can neither be bought nor sold;" and he
pushed back her proffered offering with morose disdain.

"Well, then," said the lady, "I'll keep my money, Mr. Elshender, to
assist me in the chase I am to pursue."

"You will need it," replied the cynic; "without it, few pursue
successfully, and fewer are themselves pursued.--Stop!" he said to Miss
Vere, as her companions moved off, "With you I have more to say.
You have what your companions would wish to have, or be thought to
have,--beauty, wealth, station, accomplishments."

"Forgive my following my companions, father; I am proof both to flattery
and fortune-telling."

"Stay," continued the Dwarf, with his hand on her horse's rein, "I am
no common soothsayer, and I am no flatterer. All the advantages I
have detailed, all and each of them have their corresponding
evils--unsuccessful love, crossed affections, the gloom of a convent,
or an odious alliance. I, who wish ill to all mankind, cannot wish more
evil to you, so much is your course of life crossed by it."

"And if it be, father, let me enjoy the readiest solace of adversity
while prosperity is in my power. You are old; you are poor; your
habitation is far from human aid, were you ill, or in want; your