excitement did not affect my mind. I was independent of it all the time,
a spectator of my own agitation, a clear proof that, whatever it was, it
had affected my bodily organization alone.

Next day I returned to the problem which I had not been able to solve. I
found out my petitioner in the back street, and that she was happy in the
recovery of her possessions, which to my eyes indeed did not seem very
worthy either of lamentation or delight. Nor was her house the tidy house
which injured virtue should have when restored to its humble rights. She
was not injured virtue, it was clear. She made me a great many curtseys,
and poured forth a number of blessings. Her "man" came in while I was
there, and hoped in a gruff voice that God would reward me, and that the
old gentleman'd let 'em alone. I did not like the look of the man. It
seemed to me that in the dark lane behind the house of a winter's night
he would not be a pleasant person to find in one's way. Nor was this all:
when I went out into the little street which it appeared was all, or
almost all, my father's property, a number of groups formed in my way,
and at least half-a-dozen applicants sidled up. "I've more claims nor
Mary Jordan any day," said one; "I've lived on Squire Canning's property,
one place and another, this twenty year." "And what do you say to me?"
said another; "I've six children to her two, bless you, sir, and ne'er a
father to do for them." I believed in my father's rule before I got out
of the street, and approved his wisdom in keeping himself free from
personal contact with his tenants. Yet when I looked back upon the
swarming thoroughfare, the mean little houses, the women at their doors
all so open-mouthed and eager to contend for my favor, my heart sank
within me at the thought that out of their misery some portion of our
wealth came, I don't care how small a portion; that I, young and strong,
should be kept idle and in luxury, in some part through the money screwed
out of their necessities, obtained sometimes by the sacrifice of