THE GOLOSHES OF FORTUNE. 63

teer shrivelled up, and began to take a very remarkable journey
through the hearts of the first row of spec‘ators. The first heart
through which he passed was that of alady; but he immediately
fancied himself in the Orthopeedic Institute. in the room where
the plaster casts of deformed limbs are kept hanging against the
walls ; the only difference was, that these casts were formed in
the institute when the patients came in, {svt here in the heart they
were formed and preserved after the good sersons had gone away.
For they were casts of female friends, who-e bodily and mental
faults were preserved here.

Quickly he had passed into another female heart. But this
se_med to him like a great holy church; the white dove of inno-
cence fivittered over the high altar. Gladly would he have sunk
down on his knees ; but he was obliged to go away into the next
heart. Still, however, he heard the tones of the organ, and it
seemed to him that he himself had become another and a better
man. He felt himself not unworthy to enter into the next sanc-
tuary, which showed itself in the form of a poor garret, containing
a sick mother. But through the window the warm sun streamed
in, and two sky-blue birds sang full of childlike joy, while the sick
mother prayed for a blessing on her daughter.

Now he crept on his hands and knees through an over-filled
butcher’s shop. There was meat, and nothing but meat, where-
ever he went. It was the heart of a rich respectable man, whose
name is certainly to be found in the address book. :

Now he was in the heart of this man’s wife; this heart was an
old dilapidated pigeon-house. The husband’s portrait was used
as a mere weathercock : it stood in connection with the doors,
and these doors opened and shut according as the husband
turned,

Then he came into a cabinet of mirrors, such as we find in the
Castle of Rosenburg ; but the mirrors magnified in a great degree.
In the middle of the floor sat, like a Grand Lama, the insignificant
f of the proprietor, astonished in the contemplation of his own
greatness.

Then he fancied himself transported into a narrow needle-case
full of pointed needles ; and he thought, “ This must decidedly
be the heart of an old maid!” But that was not the case. It
was the heart of a young officer, wearing several orders, and of
whom one said, “ He’s a man of intellect and heart.”

Quite confused was the poor volunteer when he emerged from
the heart of the last person in the first row. He could not arrange
his thoughts, and fancied it must be his powerful imagination
which had run away with him. i.

“ Gracious powers !” he sighed, “I must certainly have a great
tendency to go mad. It is also unconscionably hot in here: the
blood is rising to my head !” ;

And now he remembered the great event of the last evening,