Opposite to this ancient sat a dignified gentleman and a sickly
vacant-looking little girl. Every event of that day is so indelibly
marked on my memory, that I remember, not only this man's pompous look
and manner, but even the words he addressed to the poor squalid little
creature by his side. When I entered the omnibus, he was telling her
in a loud voice how she ought to dispose of her frock and her feet
when people got into the vehicle, and when they got out. He then
impressed on her the necessity in future life, when she grew up, of
always having the price of her fare ready before it was wanted, to
prevent unnecessary delay. Having delivered himself of this good
advice, he began to hum, keeping time by drumming with his thick
Malacca cane. He was still proceeding with this amusement--producing
some of the most acutely unmusical sounds I ever heard--when the
omnibus stopped to give admission to two ladies. The first who got in
was an elderly person--pale and depressed--evidently in delicate
health. The second was a young girl.



Among the workings of the hidden life within us which we may
experience but cannot explain, are there any more remarkable than
those mysterious moral influences constantly exercised, either for
attraction or repulsion, by one human being over another? In the
simplest, as in the most important affairs of life, how startling, how
irresistible is their power! How often we feel and know, either
pleasurably or painfully, that another is looking on us, before we
have ascertained the fact with our own eyes! How often we prophesy
truly to ourselves the approach of a friend or enemy, just before
either have really appeared! How strangely and abruptly we become