 mean. All I can say is, that I hope he will not leave us: for don't you see,
he is another kind of man to what we are used to, and somehow he makes us think
of all kind of things; and already I feel as if I could understand Dickens the
better for having talked with him.«
    »Yes,« said Clara, »and I think in a few months we shall make him look
younger; and I should like to see what he was like with the wrinkles smoothed
out of his face. Don't you think he will look younger after a little time with
us?«
    The old man shook his head, and looked earnestly at me, but did not answer
her, and for a moment or two we were all silent. Then Clara broke out:
    »Kinsman, I don't like this: something or another troubles me, and I feel as
if something unto ward were going to happen. You have been talking of past
miseries to the guest, and have been living in past unhappy times, and it is in
the air all round us, and makes us feel as if we were longing for something that
we cannot have.«
    The old man smiled on her kindly, and said: »Well, my child, if that be so,
go and live in the present, and you will soon shake it off.« Then he turned to
me, and said: »Do you remember anything like that, Guest, in the country from
which you come?«
    The lovers had turned aside now, and were talking together softly, and not
heeding us; so I said, but in a low voice: »Yes, when I was a happy child on a
sunny holiday, and had everything that I could think of.«
    »So it is,« said he. »You remember just now you twitted me with living in
the second childhood of the world. You will find it a happy world to live in;
you will be happy there - for a while.«
    Again I did not like his scarcely veiled threat, and was beginning to
trouble myself with trying to remember how I had got amongst this curious
people, when the old man called out in a cheery voice: »Now, my children, take
your guest away, and make much of him; for it is your business to make him sleek
of skin and peaceful of mind: he has by no means been as lucky as you have.
Farewell, Guest!« and he grasped my hand warmly
