and with a strange emphasis, pronouncing the name, "GAUT GURLEY!" he
hurried away from his post of observation.

The person whose obviously unexpected appearance among the arriving guests
had so much disturbed our host, having leisurely brought up the rear, now
paused a few paces from the door, and took a deliberate survey of all that
was visible through the windows of the scene passing within. He was a man
of a personal appearance not likely to be forgotten. His strong, upright,
well-proportioned frame, full, rounded head, and unexceptionable features,
were unusually well calculated to arrest the attention, and, at a little
distance especially, to secure the favorable impressions of others; but
those impressions faded away, or gave place to opposite emotions, on a
nearer approach, for then the beholder read something in the countenance
that met his, which made him pause,--something which he could not fathom,
but which at once disinclined him to any acquaintance with the man to whom
that countenance belonged.

Perhaps it should be viewed as one of the kindest provisions of Providence,
made in aid of our rights and instincts of self-preservation, that man
should not be able wholly to hide the secrets of his heart from his
fellow-men,--that the human countenance should be so formed that no
schooling, however severe, can prevent it from betraying the evil thoughts
and purposes which may be lurking within. It is said that God alone can
read the secrets of the heart; but we have often thought that He has
imparted to us more of this attribute of His omniscience than that which is
vouchsafed us in any one of our other faculties; or, in other words, that,
to the skill we may acquire by practice in reading the countenance, He has
added something of the light of intuition, to enable us to pierce into the
otherwise impenetrable recesses of the bosom, and thus guard ourselves
against the designs which may there be disclosed, and which, but for that,