By and by, he paused all at once; so suddenly, indeed, that my own
cachinnation lasted a moment longer.
"Ah, excuse me!" said he. "Our interview seems to proceed more
merrily than it began."
"It ends here," answered I. "And I take shame to myself that my folly
has lost me the right of resenting your ridicule of a friend."
"Pray allow me," said the stranger, approaching a step nearer, and
laying his gloved hand on my sleeve. "One other favor I must ask of
you. You have a young person here at Blithedale, of whom I have
heard,--whom, perhaps, I have known,--and in whom, at all events, I
take a peculiar interest. She is one of those delicate, nervous
young creatures, not uncommon in New England, and whom I suppose to
have become what we find them by the gradual refining away of the
physical system among your women. Some philosophers choose to
glorify this habit of body by terming it spiritual; but, in my
opinion, it is rather the effect of unwholesome food, bad air, lack
of outdoor exercise, and neglect of bathing, on the part of these
damsels and their female progenitors, all resulting in a kind of
hereditary dyspepsia. Zenobia, even with her uncomfortable surplus
of vitality, is far the better model of womanhood. But--to revert
again to this young person--she goes among you by the name of
Priscilla. Could you possibly afford me the means of speaking with
her?"
"You have made so many inquiries of me," I observed, "that I may at
least trouble you with one.
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