The record-union., 1891-06-06
THE DREAM OF JULIUS ROY.


his last volume, the discomfort of the wet
streets might we'll seem the completing
touch to his intolerable misfortunes.
Youth, romance, a certain worldly op-
portuntty, sufficient physical grace,
very pretty wit, and above all the hope,
supreme ambition of the poet; he had
staked them all in his ten years play
with the great gamester London-and
lost. He had seen them go, it is true,
without taking the loss very seriously,
hiding with passing jest what small
emotion their disappearance caused hlm,
finding it always easy to believe IN the
speedy turn of fortune. But now that
the game was played out, the TESTERS
guise was somewhat out of keeping with
the part of distressed poet; he could no
longer fiaunt the cap and bells in the lace
of opportu nifty with the old gayety.
The situation, in truth, was become des-
perate; for London itself, having won
everything from him, was like other
gamesters, grown tired of the loser. For
the first time julius thoroughly believed
in misfortune, losing the vague optimism
which as much as anything, had helped
to confuse the issues of successes and fail
ure in the past Clearly the end was at
hand! He knew it beyond doubt as he
2
ness made more evident, as it seemed, by
the dark line of the houses opposite, by
the tower of church at the end of the
street, by every shadow and wet gleam
of light in the gloomy spaces of the night.
With the imagination itself cowed,
great loneliness possessed hlm as ne re-
turned homeward. The drenchlng rain
kept him reminded very unpleasantly
indeed of the minor circumstances OF his
i'll fate-his wet clothes, his tired nerves,
the wretched shelter to which he hast
ened out of this wretched night. With
such aching thoughts uppermost, he
emerged at length by the stately portico
of st. Martins Church upon the open
space of Trafalgar Square. Here, as he
paused in some dismay, marking the
fierce drive of the rain across the unshelt-
cred pavementS, it occurred to him how
often in jolly moods of youth he had
paused here, at the very heart and center
of London, TO take yet deeper breath of
ambition. One such time he remembered
special y-an afternoon of May some years
ago, when youth and romance were boist-
erous in his blood. Then, the spring
I breezes charmed the smoke out of the air,
and the sun shone gallantly upon the
endless stream Of life pouring by. The
recollection brought out the hopeleSsness
of the present moment ia all its force, as
he stood half hesitating at sight of the
storm before taking courage to go on. At
1t easier, as one does at such times, to
continue in a route already begun than
10 decide upon new one, he crossed the
roadway and descended the steps into the
center of the square. AS he did so, the
lights in a club house opposite, now that
he was III a reminiscent mood, reminded
him of the time when he used to go with
Jack Momus to the Olympic Club, where
his dear friends, who had since found it
convenient to forget him, must even now
be sitting down to their Saturday nights
accustomed feast. 1t struck him as a di
Verting idea that there was nothing to
prevent him from marching into the club
eas of old, there to Startle the Olympians
where they sat at meal by proposing the
historical toast, "Our Noble Selves''
But this absurd fancy was interrupted
in the middle of the square by furious
gust of the storm. He was already wet
through, for his thin coat did not hide
very cOurtly underwear; and this fresh
outbreak drove the rain spitefully into
his face, down his neck, through every
seam in his worn-out clothes. 1t is not
wonderful that with this he lost patience,
and broke inyoluntarily into a bitter
curse of the gracious Olympians of the
damnable cruelty of London, of this mon
strous tyranny of earth and heaven! Re
gaining his self-pOSsession, and smiling
with a sense of his little temperamental
weaknesses of the kind, when a second
outburst of the storm followed, he bent
his head with the necessary courtesy of
the broken reed, and, SO STOPPING, dis
covered a friendly red CLEAN of light
which struck along the wet pavements to
his feet. This gleam, which came from
the red lamp of a chemists shop at the
other side of the square, gave him a sing
ular thrill of comfort, as If the cordial and
narcotic drugs on the chemists shelves,
whose effect he had SO often proved upon
nerves and brain of old, had passed
something of their virtue into It's red
light. 1t was indeed a cordial to the
fancy, making him think of the light of a
fire, and again of the gleam of Wine. At
once the old registering instinct moved in
his heart. Though it was the end of the
play, once more let him drink cup of
sturdy defiance to fate. Once more let
the god-lille wine light him into the
heaven of the imagination-the only
heaven there is for the weak men! With
this there came to him the thought of a
quiet old-fashioned tavern in Fleet street.
the Three Friars, which knew him Well
lie half turned as he thought of it, recoil-
ing from the misery of the night and
of the inhospitable garret to which be
hastened. Why, indeed should he 90 on
there? But again he remembered his
wretched appearance, and suddenly a
new and fantastic whim seized him. In
his lodging there still lay the half worn
out remnant of the dress suit in which he
had been wont to appear on past Satur-
day evenings, and, forgetting in what a
plight of decay it was, he eagerly seized
the idea of once more decking himself out
In it, Then in defiance of these last in
dignities of late he would return for vet
one more carousal. In this taking he set
off homeward with a will, passing quickly
enough now along Pail Mall and across
the park to his lodging in one of those
slums which Providence, by way Of Joke,
Ordains in London behind every royal
palace.
AS became a distressed poet, the lodg-
ing to which he presently assembled by a
dark and fuSty staircase was a crazy gar
ret, which, when he had struck light,
was shown to be quite OF the type ap-
proved by misfortune. Here, the only
part of the little furniture which he
could claim was dilapidated leathern
trunk, out of which he proceeded to
throw in haste a medley of old papers
and old clothes, singing to himself Vari-
Gus Snatches of songs sad and merry by
turns, as he carried on by the light of a
candle this strange resurrection. At
length he brought to light in this way q
crumpled and dusty garment, which
proved 10 be dress coat in a lamentable
state of decay. and this was followed by
other portions of the same attire. Moth
ing daunted, he shook these free of their
dust and tenderly stroked them out to
their original shape; and SO attiring him
self, managed TO effect at length in his APP
pearance burlesque semblance of re-
spectabllity. As he finished this doubt
1ul act OF grace, a scattered bundle of
Ehanuscrlpt that lay at his feet where he
had thrown it in emptying the trunk
caught his eye. One slip of paper he par
tlcularly noticed, and stopped to pick it
up-a rough draft, as it proved, of some
OLD love verses. He had been singing
the moment before a sufficiently profane
L,