--The watch-paper had been pink once, and had
a faint tinge still, as if all its tender life had not yet quite faded
out. Two little birds, a flower, and, in small school-girl letters, a
date,--17...--no matter.--Before I was thirteen years old,--said the old
gentleman.--I don't know what was in that young schoolmistress's head, nor
why she should have done it; but she took out the watch-paper and put it
softly to her lips, as if she were kissing the poor thing that made it so
long ago. The old gentleman took the watch-paper carefully from her,
replaced it, turned away and walked out, holding the watch in his hand. I
saw him pass the window a moment after with that foolish white hat on his
head; he couldn't have been thinking what he was about when he put it on.
So the schoolmistress and I were left alone. I drew my chair a shade
nearer to her, and continued.]
And since I am talking of early recollections, I don't know why I
shouldn't mention some others that still cling to me,--not that you will
attach any very particular meaning to these same images so full of
significance to me, but that you will find something parallel to them in
your own memory. You remember, perhaps, what I said one day about smells.
There were certain _sounds_ also which had a mysterious suggestiveness to
me,--not so intense, perhaps, as that connected with the other sense, but
yet peculiar, and never to be forgotten.
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