"Not complimentary to me, for I was in that train. I went--don't open
your eyes--to fetch you this, from the great ingenious town. It is not
half so large as your lace-pillow, and lies easily and lightly in its
place. These little keys are like the keys of a miniature piano, and you
supply the air required with your left hand. May you pick out delightful
music from it, my dear! For the present--you can open your eyes now--good-
bye!"

In his embarrassed way, he closed the door upon himself, and only saw, in
doing so, that she ecstatically took the present to her bosom and
caressed it. The glimpse gladdened his heart, and yet saddened it; for
so might she, if her youth had flourished in its natural course, having
taken to her breast that day the slumbering music of her own child's
voice.




CHAPTER II--BARBOX BROTHERS AND CO.


With good-will and earnest purpose, the gentleman for Nowhere began, on
the very next day, his researches at the heads of the seven roads. The
results of his researches, as he and Phoebe afterwards set them down in
fair writing, hold their due places in this veracious chronicle. But
they occupied a much longer time in the getting together than they ever
will in the perusal. And this is probably the case with most reading
matter, except when it is of that highly beneficial kind (for Posterity)
which is "thrown off in a few moments of leisure" by the superior poetic