the course of his against other men on the discovery that to get through life with ease and credit he had but to hold his tongue keep the bald part of his head well polished and leave his hair alone had had just cunning enough to seize the idea and stick to it it was said that his being town agent to lord was not to his having the least business capacity but to his looking so that nobody could suppose the property wed or under such a man also that for similar reasons he now got more money out of his own wretched than anybody with a less and less shining crown could possibly have done in a word it was represented called to mind alone in the parlor that many people select their models much as the painters just now mentioned select theirs and that whereas in the academy some evil old of a will be found all the cardinal virtues on account of his or his chin or his legs thereby planting thorns of confusion in the breasts of the more observant students of nature so in the great social exhibition are often accepted in of the internal character calling these things to mind and mr in a row with them arthur leaned this day to the opinion without quite deciding on it that the last of the was the drifting little with the one idea of keeping the bald part of his head highly polished and that much as an ship in the thames river may sometimes be seen heavily driving with the tide on stern first in its own way and in the way of everything else though making a great show of when all of a sudden a little steam will bear down upon it take it in tow and bustle off with it the had been taken in tow by the and was now following in the wake of that dingy little craft the return of mr with his daughter put an end to these meditations s eyes no sooner fell upon the object of his old passion than it shivered and broke to pieces most men will be found sufficiently true to themselves to be true to an old idea it is no proof of an mind but exactly the opposite when the idea will not bear close comparison with the reality and the contrast is a fatal shock to it such was s case in his youth he had loved this woman and had heaped upon her all the locked up wealth of his affection and imagination that wealth had been in his desert home like robinson s money with no one lying idle in the dark to until he poured it out for her ever since that memorable time though he had until the night of his arrival as completely dismissed her from any association with his present or future as if she had been dead which she might easily have been for anything he knew he had kept the old fancy of the past unchanged in its old sacred place and now after all the last of the coolly walked into the parlor saying in effect be good enough to throw it down and dance upon it this is always tall had grown to be very broad too and short of breath but that was not much whom he had left a lily had become a but that was not much who had seemed in all she said and thought was and silly that was much who had been spoiled and long ago was determined to be spoiled and now that was a fatal blow this is i am sure tossing her head with a of her girlish manner such as a might have presented at her own funeral if she had lived and died in classical antiquity i am ashamed to see mr i am a mere fright i know he ll find me fearfully changed i am actually an old woman it s shocking to be so found out it s really shocking he assured her that she was just what he had expected and that time had not stood still with himself oh but with a gentleman it s so different and really you look so well that you have no right to say anything of the kind as to me you know � oh cried with a little scream i am dreadful the apparently not yet understanding his own part in the drama under representation glowed with vacant serenity but if we talk of not having changed said who whatever she said never once came to a full stop look at papa is not papa precisely what he was when you went away isn t it cruel and unnatural of papa to be such a reproach to his own child if we go on in little this way much longer people who don t know us will begin to suppose that i am papa s that must be a long time hence arthur considered oh mr you of creatures said i perceive already you have not lost your old way of paying compliments your old way when you used to pretend to be so struck you know � at least i don t mean that i � oh i don t know what i mean here and gave him one of her old glances the as if he now began to perceive that his part in the piece was to get off the stage as soon as might be rose and went to the door by which had worked out that by name he received an answer from some little dock beyond and was out of sight directly you mustn t think of going yet said � arthur had looked at his hat being in a ludicrous dismay and not knowing what to do you could never be so unkind as to think of going 