The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-03-29

of attire and appearance closely akin to
that of the aesthetic /poet, came up to
Theocritus, who, bidding Jack goodbye,
walked off languidly with the new arrival.
The act had begun, 80 Jack hurried back
to his seat, but his mind was SO disturbed
by the new experiences forced upon it
during the strange interview, that he
could not keep his attention fixed on the
performance, and his copy of the play
lay unheeded in his pocket. He was
relieved when the dark curtain fell at
last and he could go away. Happily for
his excited condition, there was no after
piece-for Jack Harris would never have
dreamed under any circumstances of
leaving theatre until the very last
moment. As he came out he saw a
crowd of young men, amongst whom was
Theocritus, to whom they all bore a
family resemblance. making for the stage
door with all the appearance of habitual
frequenters of that mysterious and, to
the outer world, awful portal. Jack
sighed as he saw them. New emotions
were beginning to enter jacks mind
which he would not have comprehended
yesterday. and he arrived at the Re-
gents Park dwelling in confused state
of intellect which he in vain sought to
dispel in sleep. Strange visions, un-
known ere this, accompanied him in his
slumbers, forms of young men with long
and disordered hair thronged about him
murmuring, Behold the loveliest lady
upon earth,' snatches Of song jingled in
his ears, and shapes of women fitted
by, whom he knew to be fair by the
grace of their presence and the tender
turn Of the neck, though he could not
behold their features.
He awoke from his troubled night at
what seemed late hour to him. 1t was
nearly nine o'clock, and after startling
his parents by announcing that he was
going out to breakfast, he hurried off
towards his friends residence, which was
in side street leading into one of the
squares that border on the fashionable
world. On arriving he learned, to his
intense surprise, that Mr.. Marlowe was
not yet up, but would be with him in a
few minutes; and Jack was left to await
him in chamber which was as foreign
to all his established ideas as was the
first glimpse of the jewel-garden to the
widows son of Pekin. Although it was
bright sunny morning the windows
were carefully masked by thick curtains
Of soft, richly coloured Persian stufs,
which completely shut out the daylight,
and the room was Illuminated by innum-
cradle candles of delicate rose-color
which stood in corona lucis that hung
from the ceiling and shed tender light
upon all around. The first thing that
impressed him, when his eyes had grown
used to the effect of the candle-light, was
the number of different objects that were
in the room, which, although the room
was large one, seemed to suggest the
puzzle as TO how on earth they all got
there. There is weird story traditional
among sailors that to certain spot in
the sea all the things that are lost on
earth are carried-Ariosto, by the way,
places this Walhallao of fotsam and jetsam
in the moon-and the room owned by
Theocritus seemed very much to resem-
BILE this mythical treasure-house. So
strange collection Of objects could not,
Jack imagined, have ever been collected
together before. Even the famous room
described by Poe in one of his weird
stories, which seemed to have laid all the
quarters of the globe under requisition,
paled by the side of the dwelling of the
aesthetic poet. A Morris paper covered
the walls with strange designs of fruit
and flowers and impossible ornithology
which Theocritus would have described
as being both subtle and full of deep
suggestions. To the untaught eye and
unframed mind of poor Jack there was
something very bewildering, however,
about the strange sunfowers and fantas-
tic pomegranates which crawled all over
the walls, fourished in elaborately
painted designs upon the panels of the
door, and found their embroidered way
to the window-curtains. A high dado
ran round the room, adorned with very
stiff lotos-fowers and bulrushes, which
were, as Theocritus observed, truly SYM
bolic, though what they were exactly
symbolic of just there he never conde.
scended to explain.
ITo mn CouwrNuuuJ