`` It is but in the next street , '' he sometimes says . Fool ! it is in another world . Hitherto he has put off ' his return from one particular day to another ; henceforward he leaves the precise time undetermined -- not to-morrow ; probably next week ; pretty soon . Poor man ! The dead have nearly as much chance of revisiting their earthly homes as the self-banished Wakefield . Would that I had a folio to write , instead of an article of a dozen pages ! Then might I exemplify how an influence beyond our control lays its strong hand on every deed which we do and weaves its consequences into an iron tissue of necessity . Wakefield is spellbound . We must leave him for ten years or so to haunt around his house without once crossing the threshold , and to be faithful to his wife with all the affection of which his heart is capable , while he is slowly fading out of hers . Long since , it must be remarked , he has lost the perception of singularity in his conduct . Now for a scene . Amid the throng of a London street we distinguish a man , now waxing elderly , with few characteristics to attract careless observers , yet bearing in his whole aspect the handwriting of no common fate for such as have the skill to read it . He is meagre ; his low and narrow forehead is deeply wrinkled ; his eyes , small and lustreless , sometimes wander apprehensively about him , but oftener seem to look inward . He bends his head and moves with an indescribable obliquity of gait , as if unwilling to display his full front to the world . Watch him long enough to see what we have described , and you will allow that circumstances -- which often produce remarkable men from Nature 's ordinary handiwork -- have produced one such here . Next , leaving him to sidle along the footwalk , cast your eyes in the opposite direction , where a portly female considerably in the wane of life , with a prayer-book in her hand , is proceeding to yonder church . She has the placid mien of settled widowhood . Her regrets have either died away or have become so essential to her heart that they would be poorly exchanged for joy . Just as the lean man and well-conditioned woman are passing a slight obstruction occurs and brings these two figures directly in contact .
Their hands touch ; the pressure of the crowd forces her bosom against his shoulder ; they stand face XXXXX face , staring into each other 's eyes .
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