Japhet, in Search of a Father

but my heart remains unscathed-An anom

was very respectable in outward appearance, as well as its furniture. I

hich my pulse beat quick (for I could not but expect some disclosure; whether it was to be one of love or murder, I hardly knew which), M

ecret most important to me. Why I am obliged to do it, you will perfectly

face, and felt that I was not. And, as I now was close to her, I perceived that she must have some aromatic drug in her mouth, as it smelt strongly-t

lied I; "I hope I shall prove that I

's sacred, you will not

eplied I, kissing her hand with more

favour to excuse

of not more, apparently, than twenty-two or twenty-three years old. I started as if I had seen an apparation. "Yes," said she, smiling, "you now see Aramath

as much persuasion as I possibly could in my eyes. In fact, I did enough to have softened the hearts of three bonnet-makers. I began to feel most dreadfully in love, and thought of ma

es crushed with me. I dropped

most my infancy. In person I am the exact counterpart of what my aunt was at my age, equally so in figure, although my figure is now disguised to resemble that of a woman of her age. I often had dressed myself in my aunt's clothes, put on her cap and front, and then the resemblance was very striking. My aunt fell sick and died, but she promised the disciples that she would re-appear to them, and they believed her. I did not. She was buried, and by many her return was anxiously expected. It occurred to me about a week afterwards that I might contrive to deceive them. I dressed in my aunt's clothes, I painted and disguised my face as you have seen, and the deception was complete, even to myself, as I surveyed my countenance in the glass. I boldly set off in the e

under the influence of them towards the evening. I'm a

as this house, and all which it contains, are not mine, but belong to the disciples in general. There is another woman, not far off, who is my rival; she calls me an impostor, and says that she is the true prophetess, and that I am not one. This will be rather difficult for

can I ass

are no longer procure in any other way, and

should give herself up to ardent spirits? Why," continued I, taking her small white hand, "why should you carry on the deception; why sacrifice your

at adoration, something too pleasant in witnessing a crowd of fools stare, and men of three times my age, falling down and kissing the hem of my garment. This is, indeed, adoration! the delight arising from it is so great, that all other passions are crushed by it-it absorbs all other feelin

ion one of the most d

rise again, and higher. I cannot be what I am without I simulate-I cannot simulate

h she kept in her mouth to take away the smell of the spirits, I found myself very much taken with such beauty of person, combined with so much vigour of mind; and in the second, that one so young should carry o

reater kindness, let me awaken your dormant energies, and plant that ambition in your soul, which may lead to all that is great and good-a better path and more worthy of a man than the one which I have partly

I fell at her feet to worship her extreme beauty; then her beauty would vanish, and she would appear an image of loathsomeness and deformity, and I felt suffocated with the atmosphere impregnated with the smell of liquor. I would wake and compose myself again, glad to be rid of the horrid dream, but again