We
three had formed a kind of little club without knowing it from the time
when the young man began reading those extracts from his poetical
reveries which I have reproduced in these pages. Perhaps we agreed in too
many things,--I suppose if we could have had a good hard-headed,
old-fashioned New England divine to meet with us it might have acted as a
wholesome corrective. For we had it all our own way; the Lady's kindly
remonstrance was taken in good part, but did not keep us from talking
pretty freely, and as for the Young Girl, she listened with the
tranquillity and fearlessness which a very simple trusting creed
naturally gives those who hold it. The fewer outworks to the citadel of
belief, the fewer points there are to be threatened and endangered.
The reader must not suppose that I even attempt to reproduce everything
exactly as it took place in our conversations, or when we met to listen
to the Master's prose or to the Young Astronomer's verse. I do not
pretend to give all the pauses and interruptions by question or
otherwise. I could not always do it if I tried, but I do not want to,
for oftentimes it is better to let the speaker or reader go on
continuously, although there may have been many breaks in the course of
the conversation or reading. When, for instance, I by and by reproduce
what the Landlady said to us, I shall give it almost without any hint
that it was arrested in its flow from time to time by various expressions
on the part of the hearers.
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