His poor brains being hopelessly puzzled with this dilemma , he at length ventures out , partly resolving to cross the head of the street and send one hasty glance toward his forsaken domicile . Habit -- for he is a man of habits -- takes him by the hand and guides him , wholly unaware , to his own door , where , just at the critical moment , he is aroused by the scraping of his foot upon the step . -- Wakefield , whither are you going ? At that instant his fate was turning on the pivot . Little dreaming of the doom to which his first backward step devotes him , he hurries away , breathless with agitation hitherto unfelt , and hardly dares turn his head at the distant corner . Can it be that nobody caught sight of him ? Will not the whole household -- the decent Mrs. Wakefield , the smart maid-servant and the dirty little footboy -- raise a hue-and-cry through London streets in pursuit of their fugitive lord and master ? 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 XXXXX have been produced in the bosom of Mrs. Wakefield .
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