"Hum!" ejaculated the aged person and sat puffing his pipe and
regarding me with such close scrutiny that I grew a little uneasy.
"I trust that you believe me, sir?" said I.
"Entirely, sir!" he answered with a quick, decisive nod. "For I
perceive that you are a gentleman. Therefore, if you have the time and
inclination, pray sit down and let us talk awhile."
"Willingly, sir," said I, seating myself upon the grass, "for it is at
least quieter here, and I will confess the crowd with its tumultuous
turmoil and sordid vulgarity offends me greatly."
"Indeed, sir!" said my companion. "And yet it is simply to listen to
what you term offensive and vulgar turmoil that I am here. For, sir,
yonder clamour, being inarticulate, may speak infinitely to such as
hearken understandingly, being one of Nature's awful voices, a very
symphony of Life. Heard separately, each sound is an offence, I admit,
but blent thus together they become akin to the incessant surge of
ocean, the roar of foaming cataracts, the voice of some rushing,
mighty wind, and these are the elemental music of God."
"Indeed, sir," said I, "sitting here with you sufficiently remote from
the crowd's too-familiar contact, I can begin to appreciate the wisdom
of your remarks."
"Yet you speak a little disdainfully, I think, sir! But what is there
more proper to the contemplation of a philosopher than a concourse of
human beings? How compelling its interest, how infinite its variety!
The good rub shoulders with the evil, the merry with the sad, the
murderer with his victim, each formed alike yet each different--"
All at once as I listened, my attention was distracted by a face that
projected itself suddenly through the canvas of an adjacent tent, an
evil, stealthy face with narrowed eyes that watched us furtively a
while and was suddenly gone; my companion espied it also, it seemed,
for he sighed a little impatiently.
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