ter is like truth,--purifying,
transparent; a tonic to those fouled and wearied with the dust and
vanity of this transitional phenomenon called the world. Patronize it!
be thy acquaintance with it constant and familiar! Remember, my dear
Balder, that this slave of thine is the medium through which something
better than he (thyself, namely) is filtered to the world, and the
world to thee. Go to, then! if the filter be foul, shall not that
which is filtered become unclean also?"

Here the rhetorical phantom was interrupted by the sound of a very
good violin, touched with unusual skill, in the next room. The phantom
vanished, but Mr. Helwyse seated himself softly upon the bed,
listening with full enjoyment to every note; his very toes seeming to
partake of his appreciation. Music is the mysterious power which makes
body and soul--master and man--thrill as one string. The musician
played several bars, beautiful in themselves, but unconnected; and
ever and anon there sounded a discordant note, like a smirch upon a
fair picture. The execution, however, showed a master hand, and the
themes betrayed the soul of a true musician, albeit tainted with some
subtile deformity.

"Heard him last night, and fell asleep, dreaming of a man with the
brain of a devil and an angel's heart.--Drop in on him presently, and
have him down to breakfast. If young, shall be our brother,--so long
as there's anything in him. If--as I partly suspect--old, and a
father, marry his daughter. But no; such a fiddler as he can't be
married, unless unhappily." Mr. Helwyse runs his hands dreamily
through his tangled mane, and shakes it back. If philosophical, he
seems also to be romantic and imaginative, and impressionable by other
personalities. It is, to be sure, unfair to judge a man from such
unconsidered words as he may let fall during the first half-hour after
waking up in the morning; were it otherwise, we should infer that,
although he might take a genuine interest in whomever he meets, it
would be too analytical to last long, except where the vein was a very
rich one. He would pick the kernel out of the nut, but, that done,
would feel no sentimental interest in the shell. Too much of this! and
yet who can help drawing conclusions (and not always incorrectly) from
the first sight and sound of a new acquaintance?

There is a knock at the door, and Mr. Helwyse calls out, "Hullo? Ah!
the cold water, emblem of truth. Thank you, Hebe; and scamper away as