Wonderful escape ! He gathers courage to pause and look homeward , but is perplexed with a sense of change about the familiar edifice such as affects us all when , after a separation of months or years , we again see some hill or lake or work of art with which we were friends of old . In ordinary cases this indescribable impression is caused by the comparison and contrast between our imperfect reminiscences and the reality . In Wakefield the magic of a single night has wrought a similar transformation , because in that brief period a great moral change has been effected . But this is a secret from himself . Before leaving the spot he catches a far and momentary glimpse of his wife passing athwart the front window with her face turned toward the head of the street . The crafty nincompoop takes to his heels , scared with the idea that among a thousand such atoms of mortality her eye must have detected him . Right glad is his heart , though his brain be somewhat dizzy , when he finds himself by the coal-fire of his lodgings . So much for the commencement of this long whim-wham . After the initial conception and the stirring up of the man 's sluggish temperament to put it in practice , the whole matter evolves itself in a natural train . We may suppose him , as the result of deep deliberation , buying a new wig of reddish hair and selecting sundry garments , in a fashion unlike his customary suit of brown , from a Jew 's old-clothes bag . It is accomplished : Wakefield is another man . The new system being now established , a retrograde movement to the old would be almost as difficult as the step that placed him in his unparalleled position . Furthermore , he is rendered obstinate by a sulkiness occasionally incident to his temper and brought on at present by the inadequate sensation which he conceives to have been produced in the bosom of Mrs. Wakefield . He will not go back until she be frightened half to death . Well , twice or thrice has she passed before his sight , each time with a heavier step , a paler cheek and more anxious brow , and in the third week of his non-appearance he detects a portent of evil entering the house in the guise of an apothecary . Next day the knocker is muffled . Toward nightfall comes the chariot of a physician and deposits its big-wigged and solemn burden at Wakefield 's door , whence after a quarter of an hour 's visit he emerges , perchance the herald of a funeral . Dear woman ! will she die ?
By this time XXXXX is excited to something like energy of feeling , but still lingers away from his wife 's bedside , pleading with his conscience that she must not be disturbed at such a juncture .
Right Wakefield coal-fire escape knocker night nincompoop portent whim-wham years