The wedding-ring conveys a right to one; alas,
if none is given with it!
If nature or accident has put one of these keys into the hands of a
person who has the torturing instinct, I can only solemnly
pronounce the words that Justice utters over its doomed victim,--
THE LORD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL! You will probably go mad within
a reasonable time,--or, if you are a man, run off and die with your
head on a curb-stone, in Melbourne or San Francisco,--or, if you
are a woman, quarrel and break your heart, or turn into a pale,
jointed petrifaction that moves about as if it were alive, or play
some real life-tragedy or other.
Be very careful to whom you trust one of these keys of the side-
door. The fact of possessing one renders those even who are dear
to you very terrible at times. You can keep the world out from
your front-door, or receive visitors only when you are ready for
them; but those of your own flesh and blood, or of certain grades
of intimacy, can come in at the side-door, if they will, at any
hour and in any mood. Some of them have a scale of your whole
nervous system, and can play all the gamut of your sensibilities in
semitones,--touching the naked nerve-pulps as a pianist strikes the
keys of his instrument. I am satisfied that there are as great
masters of this nerve-playing as Vieuxtemps or Thalberg in their
lines of performance.
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