That is not like his general conduct," I muttered, as I turned from the door.
With a heavy heart, I sauntered on, almost unconscious of the path I had taken, until I found myself entangled among the crowds which thronged Oxford Street.
A scream, echoed by several voices from the crowd, "that the lady would be crushed to death!" startled me from my unprofitable musings; and following the direction of the general gaze, I saw that a young female, in attempting to cross the street, had just fallen between the horses of two carriages advancing in opposite directions.
It was but the impulse of the moment to dash across the intervening space, and hinder the young lady from being trampled to death beneath the horses' hoofs.

She fortunately was unconscious of her danger, and could not by useless screams and struggles frighten the horses, and frustrate my endeavours to save her.
The coachmen belonging to the vehicles, succeeded in stopping the horses, and I bore my insensible burden through the crowd to an apothecary's shop, which happened to be near at hand.

The gentleman in attendance hastened to my assistance.

We placed the young lady in a chair, and he told me to remove her bonnet, while he applied restoratives to her wrists and temples.
She was exceedingly fair; her rich, black, velvet pelisse, setting off to great advantage the dazzling whiteness of her skin, and the rich colouring of her sunny brown hair.
My heart throbbed beneath the lovely head that rested so placidly above it; and the arm that supported her graceful form, trembled violently.
The glorious ideal of my youthful fancy had assumed a tangible form, had become a bright reality; and as I looked down upon that calm, gentle face, I felt that I loved for the first time.

A new spirit had passed into me, I was only alive to the delicious rapture that thrilled through me.
First passion is instantaneous--electrical.