was inclining toward the fancy that this June day was the day of
destiny with me; and if such a creature were the remedy for my
misshapen life it would be bliss to take it.

In our sweet silence, broken only by the voice of the wind, the
twitter of birds beguiling perhaps with pretty nonsense the hours that
would otherwise seem long to their brooding mates on the nests, and
the hum of insects, my fancy began to create a future for the fair
stranger--a future, rest assured, that did not leave the dreamer a
calm and disinterested observer.

"This day," I said mentally, "proves that there is a kindly and
superintending Providence, and men are often led, like children in the
dark, to just the thing they want. The wisdom of Solomon could not
have led me to a place more suited to my taste and need than have my
blind, aimless steps; and before me are possibilities which suggest
the vista through which Eve was led to Adam."

My constant contact with men who were keen, self-seeking, and often
unscrupulous, inclined me toward cynicism and suspicion. My editorial
life made me an Arab in a sense, for if there were occasion, my hand
might be against any man, if not every man. I certainly received many
merciless blows, and I was learning to return them with increasing
zest. My column in the paper was often a tilting-ground, and whether
or no I inflicted wounds that amounted to much, I received some that
long rankled. A home such as yonder woman might make would be a better
solace than newspaper files. Such lips as these might easily draw the
poison from any wound the world could make. Wintry firelight would be
more genial than even June sunlight, if her eyes would reflect in into
mine. With such companionship, all the Gradgrinds in existence would