Man is an embryo; see at twenty years
     His bones, the columns that uphold his frame
     Not yet cemented, shaft and capital,
     Mere fragments of the temple incomplete. 
     At twoscore, threescore, is he then full grown? 
     Nay, still a child, and as the little maids
     Dress and undress their puppets, so he tries
     To dress a lifeless creed, as if it lived,
     And change its raiment when the world cries shame! 
     We smile to see our little ones at play
     So grave, so thoughtful, with maternal care
     Nursing the wisps of rags they call their babes;
     Does He not smile who sees us with the toys
     We call by sacred names, and idly feign
     To be what we have called them? 
     He is still The Father of this helpless nursery-brood,
     Whose second childhood joins so close its first,
     That in the crowding, hurrying years between
     We scarce have trained our senses to their task
     Before the gathering mist has dimmed our eyes,
     And with our hollowed palm we help our ear,
     And trace with trembling hand our wrinkled names,
     And then begin to tell our stories o’er,
     And see—­not hear-the whispering lips that say,
     “You know—?  Your father knew him.—­This is he,
     Tottering and leaning on the hireling’s arm,—­”
     And so, at length, disrobed of all that clad
     The simple life we share with weed and worm,
     Go to our cradles, naked as we came.

XI

I suppose there would have been even more remarks upon the growing intimacy of the Young Astronomer and his pupil, if the curiosity of the boarders had not in the mean time been so much excited at the apparently close relation which had sprung up between the Register of Deeds and the Lady.  It was really hard to tell what to make of it.  The Register appeared at the table in a new coat.  Suspicious.  The Lady was evidently deeply interested in him, if we could judge by the frequency and the length of their interviews.  On at least one occasion he has brought a lawyer with him, which naturally suggested the idea that there were some property arrangements to be attended to, in case, as seems probable against all reasons to the contrary, these two estimable persons, so utterly unfitted, as one would say, to each other, contemplated an alliance.  It is no pleasure to me to record an arrangement of this kind.  I frankly confess I do not know what to make of it.  With her tastes and breeding, it is the last thing that I should have thought of,—­her uniting herself with this most commonplace and mechanical person, who cannot even offer her the elegances and luxuries to which she might seem entitled on changing her condition.