the face terribly scorched; but it seemed to me that there was nothing to be apprehended but pain.

'You will not reveal any thing that you may learn here?' said the old man, feebly fixing his eyes on my face while I was applying some soothing ointment to the burns. You will promise me?' I nodded assent.

I will pay you well.'

"Then I will trust you. Cure me I could scarce help smiling. If Lorenzo de Medici, conscious of millions of ducats in his coffers, had been addressing some leech of the period, he could not have spoken with a loftier air than this inhabitant of the fourth story of a tenement house in the Seventh Avenue.

'You must keep quiet,' I answered. Let nothing irritate you. I will leave a composing draught with your daughter, which she will give you immediately. I will see you in the morning. You will be well in a week.'

'Thank GOD!' came in a murmur from a dusk corner near the door. I turned and beheld the dim outline of the girl standing with clasped hands in the gloom, and projecting eager eyes through the dim chamber.

6

'My daughter!' screamed the old man, once more leaping up in the bed with renewed vitality. You have seen her then? when? where? Oh! may a thousand cur 'Father! father! Any thing Do n't, any thing but that. don't curse me!' and the poor girl, rushing in, flung herself sobbing on her knees beside his pallet.

Ah! Brigand! you are there, are you? Sir,' said he, turning to me, I am the most unhappy man in the world. Talk of Sysiphus rolling the ever-recoiling stone-of Prometheus gnawed by the vulture since the birth of Time. The fables yet live. There is my rock, forever crushing me back. There is my eternal vulture feeding upon my heart! There there there!' and with an awful gesture of malediction and hatred, he pointed with his wounded hand, swathed and shapeless with bandages, at the cowering, sobbing, wordless woman by his side.

I was too much horror-stricken to attempt even to soothe him. The anger of blood against blood has an electric power which paralyzes bystanders.

Listen to me, Sir,' he continued,' while I skin this painted vi per. I have your oath. You will not reveal. I am an alchemist, Sir. Since I was twenty-two years old, I have pursued the wonderful and subtle secret. Yes! to unfold the mysterious Rose guarded with such terrible thorns, to decipher the wondrous Table of Emerald, to accomplish the mystic nuptials of the Red King and the White Queen, to marry them soul to soul and body to body forever and ever, in the exact proportions of land and water, such has been my sublime aim such has been the splendid feat that I have accomplished.'

I recognized at a glance in this incomprehensible farrago the

argot of the true alchemist. Ripley, Flamel, and others have supplied the world in their works with the melancholy spectacle of a scientific Bedlam.

'Two years since,' continued the poor man, growing more and more excited with every word that he uttered; two years since, I succeeded in solving the great problem-in transmuting the baser metals into gold. None but myself, that girl, and God knows the privations I had suffered up to that time. Food, clothing, air, exercise, every thing but shelter, was sacrificed toward the one great end. Success at last crowned my labors. That which Nicholas Flamel did in 1382, that which George Ripley did at Rhodes in 1460, that which Alexander Sethon and Michael Scudivogius did in the seventeenth century, I did in 1856. I made gold! I said to myself: 'I will astonish New-York more than Flamel did Paris.' He was a poor copyist, and suddenly launched into magnificence. I had scarce a rag to my back — I would rival the Medicis. I made gold every day. I toiled night and morning for I must tell you that I never was able make more than a certain quantity at a time, and that by a process almost entirely dissimilar to those hinted at in those books of alchemy I had hitherto consulted; but I had no doubt that facility would come with experience, and that ere long I would be able to eclipse in wealth the richest sovereigns of the earth.

'So I toiled on. Day after day I gave to this girl here what gold I succeeded in fabricating, telling her to store it away, after supplying our necessities. I was astonished to perceive that we lived as poorly as ever. I reflected, however, that it was perhaps a commendable piece of prudence on the part of my daughter. Doubtless, I said, she argues that the less we spend the sooner we shall accumulate a capital wherewith to live at ease; so thinking her course a wise one, I did not reproach her with her niggardliness, but toiled on amid want with closed lips.

"The gold which I fabricated was, as I said before, of an invariable size, namely, a little ingot worth perhaps thirty or forty-five dollars. In two years I calculated that I had made five hundred of these ingots, which, rated at an average of thirty dollars a piece, would amount to the gross sum of fifteen thousand dollars. After deducting our slight expenses for two years, we ought to have nearly fourteen thousand dollars left. It was time, I thought, to indemnify myself for my years of suffering, and surround my child and myself with such moderate comforts as our means allowed. I went to my daughter and explained to her that I desired to make an encroachment upon our little hoard. To my utter amazement she burst into tears and told me that she had not got a dollar; that the entire of our wealth had been stolen from her. Almost overwhelmed by this new misfortune, I in vain endeavored to discover from her in what manner our savings had been plundered. She could afford me no explanation, beyond what I might gather from an abundance of sobs and a copious flow of tears.

'It was a bitter blow, Doctor, but nil desperandum' was my

motto, so I went to work at my crucible again with redoubled en ergy, and made an ingot nearly every second day. I determined this time to put them in some secure place myself; but the very first day I set my apparatus in order for the projection, the girl Marian- that is my daughter's name came weeping to me, and implored of me to allow her to take care of our treasure. I refused her decisively, saying that having found her already incapable of filling the trust, I could place no faith in her again. But she persisted, clung to my neck, threatened to abandon me, in short, used so many of the bad but irresistible arguments known to women, that I had not the heart to refuse her. She has since that time continued to take the ingots.

'Yet you behold,' continued the old alchemist casting an inexpressibly mournful glance around the wretched apartment, you see the way we live. Our food is insufficient and of bad quality; we never buy any clothes; the rent of this hole is a mere nothing. What am I to think of the wretched girl who plunges me into this misery? Is she a miser, think you? or a female gamester? oror does she squander it riotously in places I know not of? O doctor, doctor! do not blame me if I heap imprecations on her head, for I have suffered bitterly!' The poor man here closed his eyes, and sank back groaning on his bed.

This singular narrative excited in me the strangest emotions. I glanced at the girl Marian, who had been a patient listener to these horrible accusations of cupidity, and never did I behold a more angelic air of resignation than was spread over her countenance. It was im ossible that any one with those pure, limpid eyes, that calm, broad forehead, that child-like mouth, could be such a monster of avarice or deceit as the old man represented. The thing was plain enough; the alchemist was mad what alchemist was there ever who was not?—and his insanity had taken this terrible shape. I felt an inexpressible pity move my heart for this poor girl, whose youth was burdened with such an awful sor

row.

'What is your name?' I asked the old man, taking his tremulous fevered hand in mine.

'William Blakelock,' he answered. 'I come of an old Saxon stock, Sir, that bred true men and women in former days. GOD! how did it ever come to pass that such a one as that girl there ever sprang from our line!*

The glance of loathing and contempt that he cast at her, made me shudder.

'May you not be mistaken in your daughter?' I said very mildly; delusions with regard to alchemy are, or have been, very common

What, Sir?' cried the old man, bounding in his bed. 'What? do you doubt that gold can be made? Do you know, Sir, that M. C. Théodore Tiffereau made gold at Paris in the year 1854 in the presence of M. Levol, the assayer of the Imperial Mint, and the result of the experiments read before the Academy of Sciences

on the sixteenth of October of the same year? But stay, you shall have better proof yet. I will pay you with one of my ingots, and you shall attend me until I am well Get me an ingot!'

This last command was addressed to Marian, who was still kneeling close to her father's bed-side. I observed her with some curiosity as this mandate was issued. She became very pale, clasped her hands convulsively, but neither moved nor made any reply.

'Get me an ingot, I say!' reïterated the alchemist passionately. She fixed her large eyes imploringly upon him. Her lips quivered, and two huge tears rolled slowly down her white cheeks.

Obey me, wretched girl,' cried the old man in an agitated voice, or I swear by all that I reverence in Heaven and earth, that I will lay my curse upon you forever!'

I felt for an instant that I ought perhaps to interfere, and spare the girl the anguish that she was so evidently suffering; but a powerful curiosity to see how this strange scene would terminate withheld me.

The last threat of her father, uttered as it was with a terrible vehemence, seemed to appall Marian. She rose with a sudden leap, as if a serpent had stung her, and rushing into an inner apartment, returned with a small object in her hand, which she placed in my hand, and then flung herself in a chair in a distant corner of the room weeping bitterly.

'You see you see,' said the old man sarcastically, 'how reluctantly she parts with it. Take it, Sir, it is yours.'

It was a small bar of metal. I examined it carefully, poised it in my hand the color, weight, every thing announced that it really was gold.

'You doubt its genuineness, perhaps?' continued the alchemist. 'There are acids on yonder table — test it.'

I confess that I did doubt its genuineness, but after I had acted upon the old man's suggestion, all further suspicion was rendered impossible. It was gold of the highest purity. I was astounded. Was then, after all, this man's tale a truth? Was his daughter, that fair, angelic-looking creature a demon of avarice, or a slave to worse passions? I felt bewildered. I had never met with any thing so incomprehensible. I looked from father to daughter in the blankest amazement. I suppose that my countenance betrayed my astonishment, for the old man said:

I perceive that you are surprised. Well, that is natural. had a right to think me mad, until I proved myself sane.'

6

You

But, Mr. Blakelock,' I said, 'I really cannot take this gold. I have no right to it. I cannot in justice charge so large a fee.'

Take it-take it,' he answered impatiently, your fee will amount to that before I am well; beside,' he added mysteriously, 'I wish to secure your friendship. I wish that you should protect me from Her,' and he pointed his poor bandaged hand at Marian.

My eye followed his gesture, and I caught the glance that replied. A glance of horror, distrust, despair. The beautiful face was distorted into positive ugliness.

'It's all true,' I thought, she is the demon that her father represents her.'

I now rose to go. This domestic tragedy sickened me. This treachery of blood against blood was too horrible to witness. I wrote a prescription for the old man, left directions as to the renewal of the dressings upon his burns, and bidding him good night hastened towards the door.

While I was fumbling on the dark, crazy landing for the staircase, I felt a hand laid on my arm.

'Doctor,' whispered a voice that I recognized as Marian Blakelock's, Doctor, have you any compassion in your heart?'

'I hope so,' I answered shortly, shaking off her hand her touch filled me with loathing.

'Hush! don't talk so loud. If you have any pity in your nature, give me back, I entreat of you, that gold ingot which my father gave you this evening.'

"Great Heaven!' said I, 'can it be possible that so fair a woman can be such a mercenary, shameless wretch? '

'Ah! you know not-I cannot tell you! Do not judge me harshly. I call GOD to witness that I am not what you deem me. Some day or other you will know-but,' she added, interrupting herself, the ingot where is it? I must have it. My life depends on your giving it to me.'

"Take it, impostor!' I cried, placing it in her hand, that closed on it with a horrible eagerness. I never intended to keep it. Gold made under the same roof that covers such as you, must be accursed.'

So saying, heedless of the nervous effort she made to detain me, I stumbled down the stairs and walked hastily home.

The next morning while I was in my office, smoking my matutinal cigar, and speculating over the singular character of my acquaintances of last night, the door opened, and Marian Blakelock entered. She had the same look of terror that I had observed the evening before, and she panted as if she had been running fast. Father has got out of bed,' she gasped out, and insists on going on with his alchemy. Will it kill him?'

'Not exactly,' I answered coldly. It were better that he kept quiet, so as to avoid the chance of inflammation. However, you need not to be alarmed, his burns are not at all dangerous, al· though painful.'

"Thank GOD-thank GOD!' she cried in the most impassionate accents, and before I was aware of what she was doing, she seized my hand and kissed it.

There, that will do,' I said, withdrawing my hand, 'you are under no obligations to me. You had better go back to your

father.'

'I can't go,' she answered, 'you despise me is it not so?' I made no reply.

"You think me a monster a criminal.

When you went home last night, you were wonder-struck that so vile a creature as I should have so fair a face.'