Theodore Winthrop

“ A man sick of himself, sorry for himself. A wasted life, hating itself for its waste, wearing itself out with self-reproach that it was naught. Some evil influence had clutched him after his first success and his first sorrow. Thenceforth his soul was paralyzed. The success had nurtured a lazy pride, instead of an exalting ambition. The sorrow had made him tender to himself and hard to others. What was that evil influence? Could it be in the dark face beside him?
Densdeth nodded to me familiarly, as I turned.
“Don’t forget,” said he, “our appointment at one. You know Raleigh, I believe.” ”

“ Densdeth laughed. Raleigh and I laughed in answer. Both had caught that mocking tone of his.
“Not only are you the devil of the tapestry,” said Raleigh, “but I see myself among your victims.”
“You flatter me,” said Densdeth, again with his sinister laugh.
“Yes, and Byng too, and certain ladies we know of. I really begin to be lazily superstitious. Don’t make it too hot for me, Densdeth, when you get me below. I’ve only been a negative sinner in this world, — no man’s enemy but my own.” ”

“ Churm?” he asked, looking away.
“No. Mr. Densdeth and Mr. Raleigh.”
“Densdeth!” said he, with a slight shudder “You see I have the susceptible nerves of an artist. I tremble at the mere sound of such an ill-omened name. Should you not naturally avoid a person called Densdeth?” And as if the sound fascinated him, he repeated, “Densdeth! Densdeth!”
“Name and man are repulsive; but attractive also. Attractive by repulsion.”
“Take my advice, and obey the repulsion. Poisons are not made bitter that we may school ourselves to like them. ”

“ But when I saw them so greedy, I could not forbear giving them diet, according to their stomachs.”
“What an infernal humbug you are, Densdeth!” said Raleigh, marking a five-shot; “you love to spoil those boys, and keep the men spoilt. If you were out of the world, they would all reform, and go, to sucking honey, instead of poison.”
“We are all humbugs,” rejoined Densdeth; “I want to put Byng on his guard against me and the rest. He might get some unhappy notion, that in America men are brave and women are pure.” ”

“ I was struck, even more than last night, by the singular, refined beauty of the youth. And then his body was so worn and thin, that his soul seemed to get very close to me.
His personal magnetism — that is, the touch of his soul on mine — affected me more keenly than before. It was having cumulative influence. The mighty medicines for soul and body always do.
And so do the poisons.
“You are looking quite vigorous and cheerful this morning,” I said, exaggerating a little. “I congratulate you on your leap out of death into full life.” ”

“ In fact, the power of deeply analyzing character comes with a maturity that I had not attained. I was to pay price for my knowledge. Densdeth’s shadow was to fall upon me. My danger with evil personified, in such a man as Densdeth, was to sear into me a profound and saving horror of evil. One does not read the moral, until the tale is told.
We played our billiards. One o’clock struck. We left Raleigh to be bored with the world and sick of himself, to knock the balls about, and wish he had been born a blacksmith or a hod-carrier. ”

“ A man may strangle himself with good dinners, or poison himself with fine old Madeira or coarse old Monongahela; a bad conscience, gnawing day and night, may eat away his heart; he may have murdered the woman that once loved him, by judicious slow torture; he may have murdered the friend that trusted him, by a peevish No, when it was help or death; no matter! He will be allowed as comfortable a grave as a sexton can dig, six feet by two in soft soil under green sod, and the priest will dust his dust with all the compliments in the burial service. ”

“ Imagination must have experience to transfuse into new facts. You, of course, have not had an unjust father, like your Lear, nor a disloyal sister, like your Goneril; nor have you felt a withering curse, as your Cordelia does. ”

“ The doctor says that it will kill him to see me again for weeks.”
“So Densdeth is respited. Well, I will study him in the interval, and find out for myself whether he is ‘main de fer, sous patte de velours.’”
“Very well, Byng; I see you are resolved to buy your experience. Densdeth has magnetized you. He does most young men.” ”

“ Churm conducted me a few blocks along that channel of wealth. He stopped in front of the Minedurt, a hotel with restaurant attached. Respectable could not have been more distinctly stamped upon a building, if it had been written up in a great label across the front, and in a hundred little labels everywhere, like the big red Ten and the little red tens on a bank-bill.
“Notice that large house across the street,” said Churm, halting before this respectable establishment.
“I do. It is nearer civilization than anything I have seen. A fine house. Happy the owner! if he appreciates architecture.” ”

“ Nothing vicarious for me! I will nibble at our friend. I’ll try not to bite, for fear of the poison you threaten.”
Churm left us, and walked across Ailanthus Square, on his way down town.
“I must look in at my quarters for a moment,” said I to the others; “will you lounge on, and let me overtake you, or honor me with a visit?”
“Let us drop in, Raleigh,” said Densdeth. “I am curious to see how the old place looks, with Stillfleet’s breezes out and Byng’s calms in.” ”

“ Possibly you may have fancied that men are to be trusted on a new continent. Possibly you may believe in the success of a society and polity based on the assumption that man-kind is not an ass when he is not a villain, and vice versa. ”