convinced, at a first introduction, that we shall secretly love this
person and loathe that, before experience has guided us with a single
fact in relation to their characters!

I have said that the two additional passengers who entered the vehicle
in which I was riding, were, one of them, an elderly lady; the other,
a young girl. As soon as the latter had seated herself nearly opposite
to me, by her companion's side, I felt her influence on me
directly--an influence that I cannot describe--an influence which I
had never experienced in my life before, which I shall never
experience again.

I had helped to hand her in, as she passed me; merely touching her arm
for a moment. But how the sense of that touch was prolonged! I felt it
thrilling through me--thrilling in every nerve, in every pulsation of
my fast-throbbing heart.

Had I the same influence over her? Or was it I that received, and she
that conferred, only? I was yet destined to discover; but not
then--not for a long, long time.

Her veil was down when I first saw her. Her features and her
expression were but indistinctly visible to me. I could just vaguely
perceive that she was young and beautiful; but, beyond this, though I
might imagine much, I could see little.

From the time when she entered the omnibus, I have no recollection of
anything more that occurred in it. I neither remember what passengers
got out, or what passengers got in. My powers of observation, hitherto
active enough, had now wholly deserted me. Strange! that the