ancing furtively about him; but
erelong he would forget himself again, and the dialogue would begin
anew.

Balder watched the man curiously, but without seeming to perceive the
rather grisly similitude between the latter's vagaries and his own.

"What an ugly thing the inside of this person seems to be!" he said.
"But then, whose thoughts and emotions would not render him a
laughing-stock if they could be seen? If everybody looked, to his
fellow, as he really is, or even as he looks to himself, mankind would
fly asunder, and think the stars hiding-places not remote enough! How
many men in the world could walk from one end of the street they live
in to the other, talking and acting their inmost thoughts all the way,
and retain a bit of anybody's respect or love afterwards? No wonder
Heaven is pure, if, our spiritual bodies are only thoughts and
feelings! and a Hell where every devil saw his fellow's deformity
outwardly manifested would be Hell indeed!

"But that can't be. Angels behold their own loveliness, because doing
so makes them lovelier; but no devil could know his own vileness and
live. They think their hideousness charming, and, when the darkness is
thickest about them, most firmly believe themselves in Heaven. But the
light of Heaven would be real darkness to them, for a ray of it would
strike them blind!"

Helwyse was too prone to moralizing. It shall not be our cue to quote
him, save when to do so may seem to serve an ulterior purpose.

"I would like to hear the story that fellow is so exercised about,"
muttered his pursuer. "How do I know it doesn't concern me? That
violin-box he carries is very much in his way; shall I offer to carry
it for him, and, in return, hear his story? If the music soothes his
soul as much as the box moderates his gestures--"

Here the man abruptly turned into a doorway, and was gone. On coming
up, Helwyse found that the doorway led in through a pair of green
folding-doors to some place unseen. The house had an air of villanous
respectability,--a gambling-house air, or worse. Did the musician live
there? Helwyse paused but a moment, and then walked on; and thus,
sagacious reader, the meeting was for the second time put off.

When he reached his hotel, he had only half an hour to dress for
dinner in; but he prepared himself faultlessly, chanting a sort of
hymn to Appetite the while. "Hunger," quoth he, "is mightiest of
magicians; breeds hope, energy, brains; prompts to love a