Then turning to one of them, whose grandfather had
been hanged, "Are you," said he, "ambitious of seeing the first
remarkable personage of your family? Say the word and he shall
appear."
This youth, who had been the most insolent and obstreperous in
the whole society, and was now depressed with the same proportion
of fear, alarmed at the proposal, assured the magician he had
no curiosity of that sort remaining; and that what he had already
seen would, he hoped, have a good effect upon his future life and
conversation. Every one of these heroes made an acknowledgment
and profession of the same kind, some of which were attended with
tears; and Hadgi having provided chairs for the whole company,
they departed exceedingly crest-fallen. Two of the number actually
sickened with the agitation they had undergone, while our hero
and his associate made themselves merry with the success of their
enterprise.
But this scheme of fortune-telling did not engross his whole
attention; he still continued to maintain his appearance in the
beau monde; and, as his expense far exceeded his income, strove to
contract intimacies with people of interest and power; he showed
himself regularly at court, paid his respects to them in all places
of public diversion, and frequently entered into their parties,
either of pleasure or cards.
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