Let us follow close at his heels , therefore , until , after several superfluous turns and doublings , we find him comfortably established by the fireside of a small apartment previously bespoken . He is in the next street to his own and at his journey 's end . He can scarcely trust his good-fortune in having got thither unperceived , recollecting that at one time he was delayed by the throng in the very focus of a lighted lantern , and again there were footsteps that seemed to tread behind his own , distinct from the multitudinous tramp around him , and anon he heard a voice shouting afar and fancied that it called his name . Doubtless a dozen busybodies had been watching him and told his wife the whole affair . Poor Wakefield ! little knowest thou thine own insignificance in this great world . No mortal eye but mine has traced thee . Go quietly to thy bed , foolish man , and on the morrow , if thou wilt be wise , get thee home to good Mrs. Wakefield and tell her the truth . Remove not thyself even for a little week from thy place in her chaste bosom . Were she for a single moment to deem thee dead or lost or lastingly divided from her , thou wouldst be woefully conscious of a change in thy true wife for ever after . It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections -- not that they gape so long and wide , but so quickly close again . Almost repenting of his frolic , or whatever it may be termed , Wakefield lies down betimes , and , starting from his first nap , spreads forth his arms into the wide and solitary waste of the unaccustomed bed , `` No , '' thinks he , gathering the bedclothes about him ; `` I will not sleep alone another night . '' In the morning he rises earlier than usual and sets himself to consider what he really means to do . Such are his loose and rambling modes of thought that he has taken this very singular step with the consciousness of a purpose , indeed , but without being able to define it sufficiently for his own contemplation . The vagueness of the project and the convulsive effort with which he plunges into the execution of it are equally characteristic of a feeble-minded man . Wakefield sifts his ideas , however , as minutely as he may , and finds himself curious to know the progress of matters at home -- how his exemplary wife will endure her widowhood of a week , and , briefly , how the little sphere of creatures and circumstances in which he was a central object will be affected by his removal . A morbid vanity , therefore , lies nearest the bottom of the affair . But how is he to attain his ends ? Not , certainly , by keeping close in this comfortable lodging , where , though he slept and awoke in the next street to his home , he is as effectually abroad as if the stage-coach had been whirling him away all night . Yet should he reappear , the whole project is knocked in the head .
His poor brains being hopelessly puzzled with this dilemma , he at length ventures out , partly resolving XXXXX cross the head of the street and send one hasty glance toward his forsaken domicile .
In about by for on than that though to until