of them declined
making any practical experiments to test the poor child's utter
deafness. The women set the example of forbearance, by entreating that
the handkerchief might be taken off so that they might see her pretty
eyes again. This was done at once, and she began to perform her
conjuring tricks with Mr. Jubber and one of the ring-keepers on either
side of her, officiating as assistants. These tricks, in themselves,
were of the simplest and commonest kind; and derived all their
attraction from the child's innocently earnest manner of exhibiting
them, and from the novelty to the audience of communicating with her
only by writing on a slate. They never tired of scrawling questions, of
saying "poor little thing!" and of kissing her whenever they could get
the opportunity, while she slowly went round the circus. "Deaf and dumb!
ah, dear, dear, deaf and dumb!" was the general murmur of sympathy which
greeted her from each new group, as she advanced; Mr. Jubber invariably
adding with a smile: "And as you see, ladies and gentlemen, in excellent
health and spirits, notwithstanding: as hearty and happy, I pledge you
my sacred word of honor, as the very best of us!"

While she was thus delighting the spectators on one side of the circus,
how were the spectators on the other side, whose places she had not yet
reached, contriving to amuse themselves?

From the moment of the little girl's first appearance, ample recreation
had been unconsciously provided for them by a tall, stout, and florid
stranger, who appeared suddenly to lose his senses the moment he set
eyes on the deaf and dumb child. This gentleman jumped up and sat down
again excitably a dozen times in a minute; constantly apologizing on
being called to order, and constantly repeating the offense the moment
afterwards. Mad and mysterious words, never heard before in Rubbleford,
poured from his lips. "Devotional beauty," "Fra Angelico's angels,"
"Giotto and the cherubs," "Enough to bring the divine Raphael down from
heaven to paint her." Such were a few fragments of the mad gentleman's
incoherent mutterings, as they reached his neighbors' ears. The
amusement they yielded was soon wrought to its climax by a joke from an
attorney's clerk, who suggested that this queer man, with the rosy face,
must certainly be the long-lost father of the "Mysterious Foundling!"
Great gratification was consequently anticipated from what might
take place when the child arrived opposite t