Page:Forget Me Not (1824).djvu/360
connected with his family before his confusion subsided, and he regained his self-possession.
The professor at length took his hand; and, after the first glance at it, he thus addressed him:—"Young man, you will, in a twelvemonth, be recalled by your father from the university; six weeks afterwards you will lose your aunt; you will have the expectancy of an office, but an unforeseen circumstance will frustrate your hopes. Now, prepare to hear the worst—you will survive the disappointment only six months."
The prophet ceased; a servant summoned him away, and the thunder-struck student was dismissed for the present.
Our hero, as it may easily be conceived, was not a little confounded at what he had heard. At first, he could not help thinking of it for hours and days together, nay, it occupied his mind in many a sleepless night. But he was of a rather volatile disposition. Professor Nietzky's lectures were finished; he had himself attained the object of his wishes; his longing was satisfied; other occupations and amusements had by degrees weakened, or entirely erased, the impression made by the prediction; and it was not long before he felt convinced of his own folly, and of the fallacy of fortune-telling. He, therefore, amused every circle of his acquaintance and every party of his fellow-