University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.

There was surely something very impertinent in the demand.
I had, by the common law, quite as much right to be where he
found me as any body, so long as my presence did not conflict with
the similar rights of any other citizen. The querist was a man,
slight of frame, apparently decrepid in his limbs, and evidently an
Italian. I could see by the lamplight, in the full glare of which
he stood, that he was violently agitated. His thin, dark features
were almost convulsed—his lips quivered, and his eyes emitted
a fiery gleam, in which I fancied that I beheld the expression of
a very malignant and personal hostility. This was all matter of
very curious surprise to me, and it was only, I suppose, because
of my exceeding surprise, that I did not, at the first moment, resent
the impertinence of his demand. It may be that I felt also, that,
however justly, according to law, I might maintain my position
where I was, in spite of him or any body else, yet that, in my
heart, and some of its desires, I was, in truth, a trespasser upon
his rights. I certainly longed to get into his household—if it
were his,—and to gaze my fill, at the sweet prisoner-bird thereof.
That she was a caged songstress, I could not allow myself to
doubt. I had caught, during the day, more than one glimpse of

her sweet, sad countenance; and I fancied, more than once, that
I read in her eyes as they encountered mine, the yearning to
be free. Perhaps, in this reading of her eyes, my boyish vanity
led me to fancy that I saw a great deal more. Perhaps—but
there will always be time enough for the confessional. Enough
to say that my conscience somewhat interfered in the desire
which I certainly should have felt under other circumstances, of
knocking my impertinent querist into the gutter, in answer to his
demand.

As the matter was, I hesitated—actually stammered, and failed
to reply in a satisfactory manner either to him or to myself, until
provoked to a right feeling of resolution by the repetition, in
broken English, of his inquiry:—

“What you do here? What you want?” The style of the
question was unbearable—the manner in which his face was
thurst forward into mine, was not to be endured, and I boldly
blunted out the truth, or that which was truth, per se, with a look
and accent of defiance.

“I stop here because it pleases me—because I wish to hear
the music.”

“Ah, ha!—it please you, dis music, eh? But you shall be go
to you place—you shall nevare come stop here, no more,—
nevare!”

And the shrivelled, angry, bilious, fiery-eyed little fellow, shook
his finger almost in my face.

Human stomach could not stand this, and an involuntary
emotion caused me to double my fist and raise my arm, with an
action which left him in little doubt of my summary intentions.
He receded at the sight, and, as I fancied, in order to effect a
retreat as abrupt as had been his entrance upon the scene; but I
was mistaken. It was only the better to prepare himself for
defence. In another moment a stiletto glittered in his hand, and
he assumed an attitude of the most determined preparation. This
would not have discouraged me,—for I was conscious that a
frame evidently so feeble as his, armed with any weapon, the use
of which depended upon his muscle, could not oppose much
obstacle to the blow of an arm like mine, endowed with no small
share of masculine vigour, and under the direction, too, of some
small science, the due result of an occasional exercise, in a very
good school of the fancy. I felt confident that I could have
“muffled his skylights” in a single instant, and long before his
Italian weapon could be brought to bear upon the action. But
a moment's reflection convinced me how seriously foolish would
be any conduct which would bring me into a street-brawl with
one like my opponent—so feeble in person—so superior in years—
and so wretched in his condition. My arm was instantly lowered,
and, murmuring something of a disinclination to chastise age,
however impertinent, I was about to draw off from the ground

and seek my own proper bulwarks. But he was not disposed to
suffer this; availing himself of a change in my position, which
half removed my face from him, he sprang towards me,—with
what purpose I could only conjecture. I had just time to turn
and grasp his uplifted arm, from which I wrenched the weapon.
In another moment, such was my indignation, I might have used
it upon him; but I was happily spared this folly, by the sudden
appearance, from the house, of the young woman who had been
the innocent occasion of all this difficulty. At her approach I
withdrew the grasp which I had taken upon the fellow. He
trembled like an aspen in the wind. His teeth chattered—with
rage, not fear. He shook his impertinent finger at me in hate
and defiance; and when the hand of the woman was put upon
his shoulder, as she threw herself between us, he flung her from
him with a degree of violence, which almost renewed in my heart
the desire to pummel him. The next moment he grasped her
about the body and dragged her within the entrance. Her eyes
were turned full upon me while she was passing from sight; and
it was a small solace to my feelings at that instant, to fancy, as I
did, that there was any thing but unkindness for me in their
expression. I was but a youth at that period, and the vanity which
seems natural enough to youth, must not be visited by the reader
with too harsh an expression of opinion.