Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. III, No. XVII, October 1851Various
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. III, No. XVII, October 1851
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
While I was indulging in these speculations, in which I have no desire
that the reader should place implicit faith, the personage whom my
curiosity had led me hither to meet, entered the room, and made toward
the place where I stood. The long interval that had elapsed since I last
saw him had effected such an alteration in his appearance that it is
probable, that, had I not been expecting him, he would have passed
unrecognized. As it was, the first glance assured me of his identity.
From added years, or from long-enduring sedentary habits, he had
acquired a slight stoop, and the old sprightly elasticity of step had
given place to the sober foot-fall of mature age; but the face, though
of a somewhat darker hue, and now lined with faint furrows, bore the
same contour and much of the same expression as of yore. There was the
same classic and intellectual profile, and the same commonplace and
rather sordid indications in the full face, which had formerly given
rise to the saying among his flock, that "The parson had two faces, one
for Sundays and one for working days." He took his seat at the left-hand
of the money-raker, and, presenting a paper, probably a check or foreign
note, received a pile of gold and silver, which he spread before him. I
had intended to watch his game, and perhaps, if occasion offered, to
speak to him; but the sight of the very man from whose lips my infant
ears had caught the first accents of public worship, preparing to take
part in the debasing orgies of the pandemonium in which I stood, so
revolted my feelings--and his action, as he bent over his pocket-book in
search of something he wanted, brought so forcibly to my recollection
his old gestures in the pulpit--that I resolved to spare myself the
witnessing of his degradation, and accordingly walked away, and out of
the accursed den, to the side of the fountain in the quadrangle, in the
cool spray of which I sat for an hour, _not_ enjoying my reflections
upon the past.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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