his way.

That smile came very near disconcerting the plot of Master Byles Gridley.
He had come on an inquisitor's errand, his heart secure, as he thought,
against all blandishments, his will steeled to break down all resistance.
He had come armed with an instrument of torture worse than the
thumb-screw, worse than the pulleys which attempt the miracle of adding a
cubit to the stature, worse than the brazier of live coals brought close
to the naked soles of the feet,--an instrument which, instead of trifling
with the nerves, would clutch all the nerve-centres and the heart itself
in its gripe, and hold them until it got its answer, if the white lips
had life enough left to shape one. And here was this unfortunate maiden
lady smiling at him, setting her limited attractions in their best light,
pleading with him in that natural language which makes any contumacious
bachelor feel as guilty as Cain before any single woman. If Mr. Gridley
had been alone, he would have taken a good sniff at his own bottle of sal
volatile; for his kind heart sunk within him as he thought of the errand
upon which he had come. It would not do to leave the subject of his
vivisection under any illusion as to the nature of his designs.

"Good evening, Miss Badlam," he said, "I have come to visit you on a
matter of business."

What was the internal panorama which had unrolled itself at the instant
of his entrance, and which rolled up as suddenly at the sound of his
serious voice and the look of his grave features? It cannot be
reproduced, though pages were given to it; for some of the pictures were
near, and some were distant; some were clearly seen, and some were only
hinted; some were not recognized in the intellect at all, and yet they
were implied, as it were, behind the others. Many times we have all found
ourselves glad or sorry, and yet we could not tell what thought it was
that reflected the sunbeam or cast the shadow. Took into Cynthia's
suddenly exalted consciousness and see the picture, actual and potential,
unroll itself in all its details of the natural, the ridiculous, the
selfish, the pitiful, the human. Glimpses, hints, echoes, suggestions,
involving tender sentiments hitherto unknown, we may suppose, to that
unclaimed sister's breast,--pleasant excitement of receiving
congratulations from suddenly cordial friends; the fussy delights of
buying furniture and shopping for new dresses,--(it seemed as if she
could hear herself s