Memory , with a finger between the leaves of her huge volume , placed herself at his right hand ; Conscience , with her face still hidden in the dusky mantle , took her station on the left , so as to be next his heart ; while Fancy set down her picture-box upon the table with the magnifying-glass convenient to his eye . We can sketch merely the outlines of two or three out of the many pictures which at the pulling of a string successively peopled the box with the semblances of living scenes . One was a moonlight picture , in the background a lowly dwelling , and in front , partly shadowed by a tree , yet besprinkled with flakes of radiance , two youthful figures , male and female . The young man stood with folded arms , a haughty smile upon his lip and a gleam of triumph in his eye as he glanced downward at the kneeling girl . She was almost prostrate at his feet , evidently sinking under a weight of shame and anguish which hardly allowed her to lift her clasped hands in supplication . Her eyes she could not lift . But neither her agony , nor the lovely features on which it was depicted , nor the slender grace of the form which it convulsed , appeared to soften the obduracy of the young man . He was the personification of triumphant scorn . Now , strange to say , as old Mr. Smith peeped through the magnifying-glass , which made the objects start out from the canvas with magical deception , he began to recognize the farmhouse , the tree and both the figures of the picture . The young man in times long past had often met his gaze within the looking-glass ; the girl was the very image of his first love -- his cottage-love , his Martha Burroughs . Mr. Smith was scandalized . `` Oh , vile and slanderous picture ! '' he exclaims . `` When have I triumphed over ruined innocence ? Was not Martha wedded in her teens to David Tomkins , who won her girlish love and long enjoyed her affection as a wife ? And ever since his death she has lived a reputable widow ! '' Meantime , Memory was turning over the leaves of her volume , rustling them to and fro with uncertain fingers , until among the earlier pages she found one which had reference to this picture . She reads it close to the old gentleman 's ear : it is a record merely of sinful thought which never was embodied in an act , but , while Memory is reading , Conscience unveils her face and strikes a dagger to the heart of Mr. Smith . Though not a death-blow , the torture was extreme . The exhibition proceeded .
One after another Fancy displayed her pictures , all of which appeared to have been painted by some malicious artist on purpose to vex Mr. XXXXX .
Burroughs Smith cottage-love dagger death-blow fro left right semblances torture