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 Wakefield 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 . If aught else restrains him , he does not know it . In the course of a few weeks she gradually recovers . The crisis is over ; her heart is sad , perhaps , but quiet , and , let him return soon or late , it will never be feverish for him again . Such ideas glimmer through the mist of Wakefield 's mind and render him indistinctly conscious that an almost impassable gulf divides his hired apartment from his former home . `` 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 XXXXX 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 .
By Toward as at beyond next of since that through