my strongest curiosity. This person was a boy, slight of build, and
fantastic in his dress, with a face like sculptured marble, and an
eye which, if a little contracted, had a strange glitter in it that
made you look and look again. He was kneeling on the floor of the
summer-house, and his face, seen by me in profile, was turned with
the fixedness of an extreme absorption towards a small opening in
the vines, through which he was intently peering. What he saw or
wished to see I could not imagine, for nothing but the blank end of
the house lay before him, and there could be very little which was
interesting in that, for not one of its windows were open, unless
you except the solitary one in my room. His expression, however,
showed that he was engaged in watching something, and by the
corrugation in his white brow and the peculiar compression of his
fresh red lip, that something showed itself to be of great
importance to him; a fact striking enough in itself if you consider
the earliness of the hour and the apparent immaturity of his age,
which did not appear to be more than fourteen.

Resolved to solve this simple mystery, I gave an admonitory cough,
and stepped into the summer-house. He at once started to his feet,
and faced me with a look I am pondering upon yet, there was so much
in it that was wrathful, curious, dismayed, and defiant. The next
moment a veil seemed to fall over his vision, the rich red lip
relaxed from its expressive curve, and from being one of the most
startling visions I ever saw, he became--what? It would be hard to
tell, only not a fully responsible being, I am sure, however near he
had just strayed to the border-land of judgment and good sense.
Relieved, I scarcely knew why, and remembering almost at the same
instant some passing gossip I had once heard about the pretty
imbecile boy that ran the streets of S----, I gave him a cheerful