apt to name periwinkles as the staff of life. We passed out into more lighted quarters, where the inhabitants dealt in nautical instruments and glass beads. I could now comprehend how it was that the soft desires of the dwellers in the Polynesian Archipelago were satisfied. Establishments of considerable importance were devoted to the sale of barley-sugar—yellow and red; and a thriving business was evidently driven in mutton pies and cranberry tarts. We passed the establishment of Moses and Son—the Taj Mahal of this quarter. It was indeed a glorious vision, resplendent with floods of gaslight, while a banner from the top floated in defiance of all opposition. The strange thing was—as far as I could gather from a hasty glance which I cast that way, as I followed the Jew in his swift career—that there were no customers in the shop, although the fact is undoubted that the firm drive a thriving trade. Along other nameless streets we passed, sometimes in the gaslight, sometimes in the dark, until I became aware that we had become members of a gradually-increasing crowd, all advancing in one direction, and evidently intent rather upon thoughts of pleasure than of business. We came at last to the establishment where the Jews’ Ball was to be held. I had supposed that the beautiful beings who were the chief attraction of the place would have been mainly dark-haired, slim as palmtrees, and of appearance generally suggestive of an Eastern origin. It was not so. The prevailing figure was dumpy: the hair of the Jewish maidens most commonly light, and their complexion rather fair than dark. However much the eye might be satiated with Hebrew beauty, I cannot say that all senses were gratified as we entered the dazzling halls where dancing had already been kept up for a time with considerable spirit. It seemed to me also to be a somewhat unfortunate arrangement, that Jewish matrons in such numbers were present at the scene of enchantment—for who would care to pluck a rose-bud of Sharon if these were the full-blown flowers in their pride of bloom? I had not been long in the room before I noticed that, as of the fairer sex, so of the men, there were three or four types—and upon one or other of these few types they seemed to have been made by the dozen. There might be shades of difference distinguishable by more practised eyes than mine, but I could not make them out. The company, of both sexes, were for the most part decidedly of short stature. Another of the noticeable features of this entertainment was, that everybody danced and talked, and pranced and laughed with everybody—there was no exclusiveness in Houndsditch.
“It was not, however, to describe the ball that I went there. My other object is known to you all. Although I had darkly speculated on such an issue before as a possibility, yet I had now been absolutely informed by the Mysterious Jew, that unless I could obtain possession of a secret known to him alone, the tortures which I had endured, and was still enduring, upon earth, would be continued for ever. Eternal Caroline was before me, behind me, around me, above me, beneath me—everywhere Caroline! The Being who could deliver me was actually in the room—willing, as he said, to deal—in a few minutes I might be delivered from my burden, but my Deliverer seemed to be given up to the very toils from which I sought to escape. Yes! there he is, executing a dance, which bears to a common polka the relation which a hurricane bears to an ordinary breeze, and floating round him there is a net of yellow hair. In its silken meshes the Wanderer has been caught for the two hundred and sixty-seventh time. Hapless Being! his case is beyond the reach of art. I see it in the vulturelike look with which he devours the charms of the yellow-haired Miriam. It is an awful sight to see all that suffering, and experience, and wisdom subjugated—though but for an hour—by a foolish puppet, whom I or any bystander, not being in love with her, can easily enough perceive to be the ordinary mixture of coquetry and commonplace. Ah, Ikey, Ikey! when the dream has passed away, and you see her again with your pulse at 63°, you would as soon think of writing verses upon the slit in a Post-office, as upon what you now call her ruby lips: the silken tresses which delight you now will seem to you then but as a pound of tow: the accents which now fall upon your ear soft as the laughter of the angels, you will then deem senseless and irrelevant babble: and you will become painfully aware that her tiny feet would be better employed by the horticulturist for the purpose of keeping his gravel-walks in order, and for the destruction of insect life, than in trampling upon your poor old heart!
“I thought I would yet endeavour to save him for his own sake, and followed the pair about the room, trying to catch the eye of my aged friend. In vain: the Wanderer either would not brook interruption, or was in reality so entranced with the charms of his captivator, that he did not notice my well-intended attempts. By this time a change had come over the spirit of the music; in place of the mincing and mopping polka, with its emphatic beats, the orchestra struck up a galop, and poured forth a wild strain which seemed to rouse the dancers to madness. It went ill with the Jew—it went ill! The yellow-haired Miriam threw her head back upon her shoulder, whilst with nervous grasp he swept her through the crowd, pouring forth, as I conceived, wild protestations of affection the while. The lady was as cool as if she had been partaking of early shrimps at Gravesend, and could I am very confident, have instantly named the result arising from the arithmetical espousals of 7 and 9. What is this? She becomes more attentive. As they pass me by, I hear him hissing into her ear:
“‘Shixty—sheventy—a hundred tousand pounds? Would you have rupies? Would you have emeralts? Would you have tiamonts, Miriam of my shoul?’
“‘Not tiamonts, tear, but you. I hate de foolish young men.’
“‘I vill cover you mit gold, peautiful lily of the valley.’
“‘Ven you are mine, Ikey, life will be gold to me—but vere is your broberdy?’
“‘In Govermment shecurities, my wild kazelle. I am teep in Intian shtock.’
