Doctor Grimshawe's Secret

the graveyard, it is wonderful what an appearance he, and his furniture, and his cobwebs, and their unwea

exalts everything into an airy, gaseous exhilaration, have a fixed and dogged purpose, around which everything congeals and crystallizes. [Endnote: 1] Even the sunshine, dim through the dustiness of the two casements that looked upon the graveyard, and the smoke, as it came warm out of Doctor Grimshawe's mouth, seemed already stale. But if the two children, or either of them, happened to be in the study,-if they ran to open the door at the knock, if they came scampering and peeped down over the banisters,-the sordid and rusty gloom was apt to vanish quite away. The sunbeam itself looked like a golden

clambered into the Doctor's arms and kissed him, she bore away no smoky reminiscences of the pipe that he kissed continually. She had a free, mellow, natural laughter, that seemed the ripened fruit of the smile that was generally on her little face, to be shaken off and scattered abroad by any breeze that came along. Little Elsie made playth

t least crusty Hannah often said so, and often made grievous complaint of disobedience, mischief, or breakage, attributable to little Elsie; to which the grim Doctor seldom responded by anything more intelligible than a puff of tobacco-smoke, and, sometimes, an imprecation; which, however, hit crusty Hannah instead of the child. Where the child got the tenderness that a c

of coming things, and a mere baby, with whom there was neither past nor future. Ned, as he was named, was subject very early to fits of musing, the subject of which-if they had any definite subject, or were more than vague reveries-it was impossible to guess. They were of those states of mind, probably, which are beyond the sphere of human language, and would necessarily lose their essence in the attempt to communica

ghtfulness and dreaminess in her little chair, close beside him; now and then peeping under her eyelashes to note what changes might come ov

pt to assume one similar;-these two standing at the grim Doctor's footstool; he meanwhile, black, wild-bearded, heavy-browed, red-eyed, wrapped in his faded dressing-gown, puffing out volumes of vapor from his long pipe, and making, just at that instant, application to a tumbler, which, we regret to say, was generally at his elbow, with some dark-colored potation in it that required to be frequently replenished from a neighboring black bottle. Half, at least, of the fluids in the grim Doctor's system must have been derived from that sa

eavy and smouldering fierceness-that over his head, at this very moment, dangled the portentous spider, who seemed to have come down from his web aloft for the purpose of hearing what th

inevitably does, to see whether the occasion was favorable, yet determined to proceed

id, when they were unconscious. "So you want to ask me a question? As many as you please, m

's hand, and climbing upon the Doctor's knee, "'ou shall answe

ands, if not other people's rights likewise; and, if it be right, I shall answer his que

"tell me, in the first place, where I

nd earnestly putting this demand, with a perplexed,

nce did any of us come? Out of the darkness and mystery; out of nothingness; out of a kingdom of shadows; out of dust, clay, mud, I think, and to return to it again. Out of a former state of being, whence we have brought a good many shadowy revelations, purporting that it was no very pleasant one. Out of a former life, of which the present on

" said little Elsie. "You are making fu

very loud and obstreperous. "I am glad you find it so, my little

her bright

nd Ned, insist

up his demand by an appeal to the little tin sword which hung by his side. The Doctor looked at him with a kind of smile,-not a very pleasant one; for it was an unamiable characteristic of his temper

, boy, a foundling from an almshouse; and if ever hereafter you desire to know your kindred, you

is face, and wept in a violent convulsion of grief and shame. Little Elsie clasped her arms about him, kissing his brow and chin, which wer

Doctor Grim, who had very attentively wat

ack by main force,-for he was a rough man even in his tenderness,-and, sitting down again and taking him on his knee, pulled away his hands from before his face. Never was a more pitiful sight than that pale countenance, so infantile still, yet looking old and experienced already, with a sense of d

"forget what I have said! Yes, remember, if you like, that you came from an almshouse; but remember, too,-what your friend Doctor Grim is ready to affirm and make oath of,-that he

ion of a man of no mark; not at least of such mark as would naturally leave his features to be transmitted for the interest of another generation. For he was clad in a mean dress of old fashion,-a leather jerkin it appeared to be,-and round his neck, moreover, was

of this being; for, mean as his station looks, he comes of an ancient and noble race, and was the noblest of them

d annihilate a race, rather than to build one up by bringing forward the infant heir out of obscurity, and making plain the links-the filaments-which ce

ithin limits of his own. So he went back to his chair, his pipe, and his tumbler, and was gruffer and more taciturn than ever for the rest of the evening. And after the children went to bed, he leaned back in his chair and looked