Into pets. Anger is an expensive luxury, in which only men of a

certain income can indulge. A pair of spectacles and a hot temper are

not the most promising capital for success in life, Master Titbottom.'

"I said nothing, but put my hand upon the door to go out, when the

merchant said more respectfully,--

"'Well, you foolish boy, if you will not sell your spectacles, perhaps

you will agree to sell the use of them to me. That is, you shall only

put them on when I direct you, and for my purposes. Hallo! you little

fool!' cried he impatiently, as he saw that I intended to make no

reply.

"But I had pulled out my spectacles, and put them on for my own

purpose, and against his direction and desire. I looked at him, and

saw a huge bald-headed wild boar, with gross chops and a leering

eye--only the more ridiculous for the high-arched, gold-bowed

spectacles, that straddled his nose. One of his fore hoofs was thrust

Into the safe, where his bills payable were hived, and the other into

his pocket, among the loose change and bills there. His ears were

pricked forward with a brisk, sensitive smartness. In a world where

prize pork was the best excellence, he would have carried off all the

premiums.

"I stepped into the next office in the street, and a mild-faced,

genial man, also a large and opulent merchant, asked me my business in

such a tone, that I instantly looked through my spectacles, and saw a

land flowing with milk and honey. There I pitched my tent, and stayed

till the good man died, and his business was discontinued.

"But while there," said Titbottom, and his voice trembled away into a

sigh, "I first saw Preciosa. Spite of the spectacles, I saw Preciosa.

For days, for weeks, for months, I did not take my spectacles with me.

I ran away from them, I threw them up on high shelves, I tried to make

up my mind to throw them into the sea, or down the well. I could not,

I would not, I dared not look at Preciosa through the spectacles. It

was not possible for me deliberately to destroy them; but I awoke in

the night, and could almost have cursed my dear old grandfather for

his gift. I escaped from the office, and sat for whole days with

Preciosa. I told her the strange things I had seen with my mystic

glasses. The hours were not enough for the wild romances which I raved

in her ear. She listened, astonished and appalled. Her blue eyes

turned upon me with a sweet deprecation. She clung to me, and then

withdrew, and fled fearfully from the room. But she could not stay

away. She could not resist my voice, in whose tones burned all the

love that filled my heart and brain. The very effort to resist the

desire of seeing her as I saw everybody else, gave a frenzy and an

unnatural tension to my feeling and my manner. I sat by her side,

looking into her eyes, smoothing her hair, folding her to my heart,

which was sunken and deep--why not forever?--in that dream of peace. I

ran from her presence, and shouted, and leaped with joy, and sat the

whole night through, thrilled into happiness by the thought of her

love and loveliness, like a wind-harp, tightly strung, and answering

the airiest sigh of the breeze with music. Then came calmer days--the

conviction of deep love settled upon our lives--as after the hurrying,

heaving days of spring, comes the bland and benignant summer.

"'It is no dream, then, after all, and we are happy,' I said to her,

one day; and there came no answer, for happiness is speechless.

"We are happy then," I said to myself, "there is no excitement now.

How glad I am that I can now look at her through my spectacles."

"I feared lest some instinct should warn me to beware.