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Rh such occasion, they would utter strange, wild sounds, accompanied by gestures equally singular. When these extraordinary little beings perceived that Maria laughed at their ugliness and their antic motions, they mocked at her with the oddest grimaces possible.

At the further end of the apartment, sate a little shrivelled old man of most diminutive figure, whom Zerina saluted with the utmost courtesy; to which, he replied by a grave bow with his head. In one of his hands he bore a sceptre, and upon his brow, he wore a rich crown: all the other dwarfs appeared to reverence him as their sovereign, and to watch for his commands.

“What bringeth ye hither?” demanded he, as the children approached towards where he was seated, in a tone that caused Maria to tremble.

“We come merely to behold thy treasures, my good father,” returned Zerina.

“Aye!” murmured out the old man, “I deemed it was some such folly. Will there ne’er be any end to this impertinent curiosity?”