Nothing told me then that she , a few years hence , would be the wife of one entirely unknown to me as yet , but destined hereafter to become a closer friend than even herself , more intimate than that unmannerly lad of seventeen , by whom I was collared collar in the passage , on coming come down , and well-nigh jerked jerk off my equilibrium , and who , in correction for his impudence impudence , received a resounding whack whack over the sconce , which , however , sustained no serious injury from the infliction ; as , besides being more than commonly thick , it was protected by a redundant shock of short , reddish curls , that my mother called auburn .