Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 2).djvu/19

Rh which our gallic neighbours seem to have invented to bridle some kinds of folly, and spur men on to other kinds, had never once occurred to the thoughtless wight in his prosperity, and his feelings were not sufficiently delicate to make him ashamed of the consequences of his extravagance. At first he was like a drunkard, just awoke from intoxication, nearly unconscious of what had happened to him; and afterwards, like most unfortunate spendthrifts, he lived on and felt neither grief nor shame. He had luckily saved a few relics of his mother’s jewels from the general wreck of his fortune; and they kept him for a time from absolute want.

He took lodgings in one of the most obscure parts of the town, in a narrow street, into which the beams of the sun rarely penetrated, but on the very longest days, when they glanced for a short time over the high roofs. Here he found all he wanted in his present circumscribed situation. The frugal table of his landlord satiated his hunger; at the fire-side he was protected from the cold; and the roof and walls sheltered him from rain and wind.