body which seemed a part of it was much stiffer and more angular. The
yellow-wash on the wall was a paltry reflex of the ghastly yellow of his
faded visage; for the iron face was the face of a corpse.

Men who stood vacantly staring in muttered, "Beast!" women, shrinking
from the unsightly spectacle, whispered, "Beast!" and children, gazing
in silent horror with the rest, stared "Beast!" out of their
wonder-stricken eyes. So hard did they stare, so loud did they mutter,
and so many instances did they rehearse of the foul wrongs he had
committed, that I am doubtful about the matter myself, and ask you,
reader, Was he a Beast?




LEAVES IN THE LIFE OF AN IDLER.


Leaf the First.

When a man whom you have every reason to believe not only the coolest,
but the most unimpressible, of beings, suddenly turns white as a ghost
and shivers with a nervous spasm, it is safe to suppose he is
frightened. But when terror, turning into rage, changes one of the most
attentive and respectful of servants into a madman, it is scarcely safe
to suppose anything. As it was, I stared in mute amazement, and he
glared at me as though I had struck him. While waiting for a light, I
carelessly put my hand into a basket of hot-house vegetables. The small
egg-plant I took up certainly _did_ weigh twenty pounds, and when I
attempted to lift the basket the handle bent double; but why this should