'What is all this nonsense, you devil?' I demanded, fiercely enough, though weak and trembling in every limb.

'It is what some are pleased to call jugglery¹（戏法，杂耍） ,' he answered, with a light, hard laugh.

He turned down Dupont Street and I saw him no more until we met in the Auburn ravine.

On the day after my second meeting with Dr. Dorrimore I did not see him: the clerk in the Putnam House explained that a slight illness confined him to his rooms. That afternoon at the railway station I was surprised and made happy by the unexpected arrival of Miss Margaret Corray and her mother, from Oakland.

This is not a love story. I am no story-teller, and love as it is cannot be portrayed² in a literature dominated and enthralled³ by（被……迷住） the debasing（降低，掺杂） tyranny which 'sentences letters' in the name of the Young Girl. Under the Young Girl's blighting⁴ reign⁵ -- or rather under the rule of those false Ministers of the Censure⁶ who have appointed themselves to the custody⁷ of her welfare -- Love veils her sacred fires,

And, unaware⁸, Morality expires, famished⁹ upon the sifted¹⁰ meal and distilled¹¹ water of a prudish¹² purveyance（伙食，供应） .

Let it suffice that Miss Corray and I were engaged in marriage. She and her mother went to the hotel at which I lived, and for two weeks I saw her daily. That I was happy needs hardly be said; the only bar to my perfect enjoyment¹³ of those golden days was the presence of Dr. Dorrimore, whom I had felt compelled to introduce to the ladies.

By them he was evidently held in favour. What could I say? I knew absolutely nothing to his discredit¹⁴. His manners were those of a cultivated and considerate gentleman; and to women a man's manner is the man. On one or two occasions when I saw Miss Corray walking with him I was furious, and once had the indiscretion（轻率） to protest. Asked for reasons, I had none to give, and fancied I saw in her expression a shade of contempt for the vagaries¹⁵ of a jealous mind. In time I grew morose¹⁶ and consciously disagreeable, and resolved in my madness to return to San Francisco the next day. Of this, however, I said nothing.

There was at Auburn an old, abandoned cemetery¹⁷. It was nearly in the heart of the town, yet by night it was as gruesome a place as the most dismal¹⁸ of human moods could crave¹⁹. The railings about the plots were prostrate²⁰, decayed, or altogether gone. Many of the graves were sunken, from others grew sturdy（强健的） pines, whose roots had committed unspeakable sin. The headstones（基石，墓石） were fallen and broken across; brambles overran the ground; the fence was mostly gone, and cows and pigs wandered there at will; the place was a dishonour²¹ to the living, a calumny²²（诽谤，中伤） on the dead, a blasphemy²³（亵渎神明） against God.