hundred pounds sterling. The interest of
this capital is paid to the spouses, and it
ultimately forms a fund for the widow's
pension in case of the husband's death.
Captains and field-officers must furnish
proportionately larger sums, if they are not too old
to wish for this manner of settlement in life.
Now, unhappily, neither Lieutenant
Wärmerstein nor Julia Petravits had the
remotest chance, in the ordinary course of
provision or inheritance, of ever being able
to compass a twentieth part of the
required sum. They had danced together at
the Golden Angel, and were irretrievably
in love.

A relative, who had carried on a lucrative
business as an apothecary at Gallatz, was
applied to, and would willingly have
responded favourably to the appeal; but he
had married a poor Greek girl, thirty-five
years younger than himself, and she was
threatening to divorce him, and to have his
property sequestered, if he gave more than
twenty-five ducats towards Julia's happiness.
Poor Julia cried for six hours after receiving
with the money this qualified refusal; after
which she went out and spent more than half
the ducats upon various coquettish articles
of dress, as if bent upon driving Wärmerstein
totally mad with admiration. The remainder
would have been dissipated in the same way
next morning, but that a bright (and as she
fancied original) thought struck her during
the sleepless night which intervened. By
putting two florins each time on three num-
bers in the Lotto, which was, providentially,
drawn at Temeswar every ten days, a terno
would be formed, entitling the holder to
nine thousand six hundred florins. She took
the number according with her own age,
fifteen; the age of her infantry adorer, twenty-
four; and their united ages, thirty-nine.
Could there be a prettier terno secco than
numbers fifteen, twenty-four, thirty-nine?
Fortune must be the most unfeeling jade in
existence, if she failed to favour so sweet a
combination. Nothing was more simple than
the appropriation of the gains florins six
thousand; for the caution-money would be
forwarded to Vienna, by the paternal post,
without an instant's delay; and then there
would remain, from the produce of the
terno secco, upwards of three thousand
florins towards the expenses of a first
establishment, after having allowed for a
present to her parents equal to their yearly
income.

The first drawing was an actual scandal, if
not an individual insult. The little strip of
paper from the collector announced one,
seven, fifty-nine, sixty-eight, eighty-eight, as
the five numbers drawn from the wheel,
containing little scrolls marked from one to
ninety inclusive.

"What!" exclaimed Julia, "these numbers
are actually absurd! They represent nothing
but infancy and old age."

In the next drawing, her own age and
the united ages were indeed drawn, but
not the lover's age  so nothing was
got by that, except a sort of prospect
promise of improvement. At length the
sacred fund, as well as a pair of earrings,
had been devoted to the goddess
Fortune of Temeswar. As a climax of evil
destiny, the regiment was ordered off, and
bound to march within a week or two.
Wärmerstein became a slave to platoon
preparations.

Upon the morning of a magnificent tropical
day in August, the disconsolate Julia strolled,
with her younger sister, to those celebrated
heights from whence Belgrade had been
bombarded. Little Katinka collected wild
flowers, and pensive Julia sat on the soft
moss, gazing unconsciously upon the Danube
and the minarets of the Turkish city, when
she suddenly discovered that the dark eyes
of a stranger were upon her tearful face. He
was handsomely dressed, and the fingers of
his ungloved hand were covered with rings,
according to the Hungarian fashion of all
times. He raised his foraging-cap from his
head, and respectfully addressed some
inquiries as to the topography, in a German
so accentuated and cadenced that there could
be no doubt as to the Magyar origin of the
speaker. In her innocence of worldly
conventionalities, and in courtesy to a stranger,
Julia answered all his questions with the
grace and intelligence that belonged to her.
Besides, he appeared to her quite an old man,
and she was not alone with him, for she had
beckoned Katinka to her side. The manner
of the stranger seemed to be so sympathising,
that she ended by recounting every portion
of her simple history. The stranger's interest
was manifested by a promise that if
Julia would meet him in the same place,
on the following day, he would be able to
give her good advice, only she must say
nothing to her parents. At the appointed
hour the parties met with increased interest,
and spoke as confidentially as if they had
known each other for years. At length the
Hungarian said, "Dear child  your hope of
happiness shall not be lost for the matter of
a few thousand florins. I will supply them,
but have not the money here. By all that is
solemn" (he signed himself with the cross),
"if you come to this spot at nine o'clock on
the morning of the twelfth of next month, I
will put the bank-notes into your hand,
asking nothing of you in return but a parting
kiss, and a promise that you will not any
longer think ill of Schobry, because I am
Schobry."

Julia was at home more silent than ever
She told the lieutenant that she had a hope
still; and he concluded it to be something as
promising as the possible terno; so he smoked
his pipe, and trusted that the quarters he
was moving to might bring him more
substantial luck.