-shouldered, portly, unctuous M. Huguenin,
a Swiss, proprietor of the once-famous gymnasium which bore his name.
He so anointed me with praise that I waxed indiscreet, and one day, as
I was swinging on the rings, and he was pointing out to some prospective
patrons my extraordinary merits, my grasp relaxed at the wrong moment
and I came sailing earthward from on high. It seemed to me that, like
Milton's Lucifer, "from dawn to eve I fell," M. Huguenin sprinting to
intercept my fall; but I landed on a mat and was little the worse
for it. I fear the prospective patrons were not persuaded, by my
performance, of the expediency of gymnastic training. On the other
hand, M. Huguenin managed to dispose to my father of one of his
multum-in-parvo exercising-machines, on the understanding that it was to
be taken back at half-price on the expiration of our stay in Liverpool;
but, when that time came, M. Huguenin failed to remember having been a
party to any such understanding; so the big framework was boxed up, and
finally was resurrected in Concord, where I labored with it for seven or
eight years more during my home-comings from Harvard.

In the intervals of my other pursuits, I was, at this period, sent into
society. The society at Mrs. Blodgett's was, indeed, all that I desired;
but it was doubtless perceived that it was not all that my polite
development required; my Orsonism was too much indulged. I was sent
alone to Sandheys, the Brights' and Heywoods' place, where I was
moderately ill at ease; and also to the house of a lady in town, who
received a good deal of company, and there I was, at first, acutely
miserable. The formalities of the drawing-room and the elegant
conversation overwhelmed me with the kind of torture which Swedenborg
ascribes to those spirits of the lower orders who are admitted
temporarily into the upper heavens. Unlike these unfortunates, however,
I presently got acclimated; other boys of my age appeared, and numbers
of little girls (Mary Warren among them), and now society occupied all
my thoughts. The lady of the house got up private theatricals--"Beauty
and the Beast" was the play. I was cast for the parts of the Second
Sister and of the Beast; Mary Warren was the Beauty. I got by heart not
only my own lines, but those of all the other performers and the stage
directions. The play was received with applause, and after it was
done the actors were feted; my father was not present, but he appeared
greatly