ed over and
knocked stealthily at the door--just as one would knock who did not wish
to attract the attention of the inmates, but merely to convey an
intimation to the servants. I was seized with a strong impulse to rush
upon him suddenly, present myself as the door opened, and confound him
on the spot; but I remembered how earnestly Astraea had urged upon me the
prudence of avoiding him, and I restrained myself. Stepping cautiously
into a doorway, I continued to watch his further proceedings.

The door was opened by a servant, and my dwarf, burying himself up to
the eyes in his cloak, so that it was impossible to distinguish his
features, appeared to enter into a confidential conversation with her.
It seemed to me to last a long time; but my impatience, no doubt,
exaggerated its duration. At length it drew to an end, and hastily
nodding to the servant, who looked after him, as I thought with much
curiosity and astonishment, he dropped down the street at the same
flying pace with which he had entered it. That he had come to my house
for the purpose of picking up some intelligence about me was clear; upon
that point I was satisfied, and the discovery only served to heighten my
anxiety to find out what he was going to do next.

As he darted along I could not help admiring his wonderful agility.
There was a certain sort of confident swagger about his ordinary style
of walking, such as you frequently observe in small vivacious men, who
strut and swing through the streets as if the great globe itself were
their private property; but upon this occasion it resolved itself into
the swift and impetuous flight of a meteor. He shot from one angle of a
street to another something in the manner of a will-o'-the-wisp, and it
was almost as difficult to fix his course and follow him up. Thus
hanging closely on his footsteps, I was not a little mortified to find,
after all, that the trouble I had taken led to nothing. Striking out a
different, but a much shorter route, the hideous creature went back to
his own house. The lights were already extinguished in the
drawing-room, and the windows, even to the dormitories, were in
darkness. The domestics, apparently, had retired to bed; for the dwarf,
hastily opening the door with a latch-key, vanished from my sight almost
at the same instant that he ascended the steps. I lingered for A few
moments at a distance, and then slowly returned home, congratulating
myself on having detected his sinis