Conceive, if you please, of a man floating in the most ecstatic delight of heaven pulled suddenly thence down into the most filthy extremity of hell, and then you shall understand the motions of disgust and repugnance and loathing that overpowered our hero, who, awakening thus suddenly out of his dream of love, found himself in the presence of that grim and obscene spectacle of death--who, arousing from such absorbing and exquisite meditations, heard his ears greeted with so rude and vulgar an address.
Acknowledging to himself that he did not dare offer an immediate reply to his host, he turned upon his heel and walked away, without expressing a single word.
He was not, however, permitted to escape thus easily. He had not taken above twenty steps, when, hearing footsteps behind him, he t
