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diff --git a/9222-0.txt b/9222-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d17b23 --- /dev/null +++ b/9222-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,914 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Select Party, by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: A Select Party + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: September 6, 2003 [eBook #9222] +[Most recently updated: November 9, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Widger and Al Haines + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY *** + + + + +A Select Party + +by Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + + +The man of fancy made an entertainment at one of his castles in the +air, and invited a select number of distinguished personages to favor +him with their presence. The mansion, though less splendid than many +that have been situated in the same region, was nevertheless of a +magnificence such as is seldom witnessed by those acquainted only with +terrestrial architecture. Its strong foundations and massive walls were +quarried out of a ledge of heavy and sombre clouds which had hung +brooding over the earth, apparently as dense and ponderous as its own +granite, throughout a whole autumnal day. Perceiving that the general +effect was gloomy,—so that the airy castle looked like a feudal +fortress, or a monastery of the Middle Ages, or a state prison of our +own times, rather than the home of pleasure and repose which he +intended it to be,—the owner, regardless of expense, resolved to gild +the exterior from top to bottom. Fortunately, there was just then a +flood of evening sunshine in the air. This being gathered up and poured +abundantly upon the roof and walls, imbued them with a kind of solemn +cheerfulness; while the cupolas and pinnacles were made to glitter with +the purest gold, and all the hundred windows gleamed with a glad light, +as if the edifice itself were rejoicing in its heart. + +And now, if the people of the lower world chanced to be looking upward +out of the turmoil of their petty perplexities, they probably mistook +the castle in the air for a heap of sunset clouds, to which the magic +of light and shade had imparted the aspect of a fantastically +constructed mansion. To such beholders it was unreal, because they +lacked the imaginative faith. Had they been worthy to pass within its +portal, they would have recognized the truth, that the dominions which +the spirit conquers for itself among unrealities become a thousand +times more real than the earth whereon they stamp their feet, saying, +“This is solid and substantial; this may be called a fact.” + +At the appointed hour, the host stood in his great saloon to receive +the company. It was a vast and noble room, the vaulted ceiling of which +was supported by double rows of gigantic pillars that had been hewn +entire out of masses of variegated clouds. So brilliantly were they +polished, and so exquisitely wrought by the sculptor’s skill, as to +resemble the finest specimens of emerald, porphyry, opal, and +chrysolite, thus producing a delicate richness of effect which their +immense size rendered not incompatible with grandeur. To each of these +pillars a meteor was suspended. Thousands of these ethereal lustres are +continually wandering about the firmament, burning out to waste, yet +capable of imparting a useful radiance to any person who has the art of +converting them to domestic purposes. As managed in the saloon, they +are far more economical than ordinary lamplight. Such, however, was the +intensity of their blaze that it had been found expedient to cover each +meteor with a globe of evening mist, thereby muffling the too potent +glow and soothing it into a mild and comfortable splendor. It was like +the brilliancy of a powerful yet chastened imagination,—a light which +seemed to hide whatever was unworthy to be noticed and give effect to +every beautiful and noble attribute. The guests, therefore, as they +advanced up the centre of the saloon, appeared to better advantage than +ever before in their lives. + +The first that entered, with old-fashioned punctuality, was a venerable +figure in the costume of bygone days, with his white hair flowing down +over his shoulders and a reverend beard upon his breast. He leaned upon +a staff, the tremulous stroke of which, as he set it carefully upon the +floor, re-echoed through the saloon at every footstep. Recognizing at +once this celebrated personage, whom it had cost him a vast deal of +trouble and research to discover, the host advanced nearly three +fourths of the distance down between the pillars to meet and welcome +him. + +“Venerable sir,” said the Man of Fancy, bending to the floor, “the +honor of this visit would never be forgotten were my term of existence +to be as happily prolonged as your own.” + +The old gentleman received the compliment with gracious condescension. +He then thrust up his spectacles over his forehead and appeared to take +a critical survey of the saloon. + +“Never within my recollection,” observed he, “have I entered a more +spacious and noble hall. But are you sure that it is built of solid +materials and that the structure will be permanent?” + +“O, never fear, my venerable friend,” replied the host. “In reference +to a lifetime like your own, it is true my castle may well be called a +temporary edifice. But it will endure long enough to answer all the +purposes for which it was erected.” + +But we forget that the reader has not yet been made acquainted with the +guest. It was no other than that universally accredited character so +constantly referred to in all seasons of intense cold or heat; he that, +remembers the hot Sunday and the cold Friday; the witness of a past age +whose negative reminiscences find their way into every newspaper, yet +whose antiquated and dusky abode is so overshadowed by accumulated +years and crowded back by modern edifices that none but the Man of +Fancy could have discovered it; it was, in short, that twin brother of +Time, and great-grandsire of mankind, and hand-and-glove associate of +all forgotten men and things,—the Oldest Inhabitant. The host would +willingly have drawn him into conversation, but succeeded only in +eliciting a few remarks as to the oppressive atmosphere of this present +summer evening compared with one which the guest had experienced about +fourscore years ago. The old gentleman, in fact, was a good deal +overcome by his journey among the clouds, which, to a frame so +earth-incrusted by long continuance in a lower region, was unavoidably +more fatiguing than to younger spirits. He was therefore conducted to +an easy-chair, well cushioned and stuffed with vaporous softness, and +left to take a little repose. + +The Man of Fancy now discerned another guest, who stood so quietly in +the shadow of one of the pillars that he might easily have been +overlooked. + +“My dear sir,” exclaimed the host, grasping him warmly by the hand, +“allow me to greet you as the hero of the evening. Pray do not take it +as an empty compliment; for, if there were not another guest in my +castle, it would be entirely pervaded with your presence.” + +“I thank you,” answered the unpretending stranger; “but, though you +happened to overlook me, I have not just arrived. I came very early; +and, with your permission, shall remain after the rest of the company +have retired.” + +And who does the reader imagine was this unobtrusive guest? It was the +famous performer of acknowledged impossibilities,—a character of +superhuman capacity and virtue, and, if his enemies are to be credited, +of no less remarkable weaknesses and defects. With a generosity with +which he alone sets us an example, we will glance merely at his nobler +attributes. He it is, then, who prefers the interests of others to his +own and a humble station to an exalted one. Careless of fashion, +custom, the opinions of men, and the influence of the press, he +assimilates his life to the standard of ideal rectitude, and thus +proves himself the one independent citizen of our free country. In +point of ability, many people declare him to be the only mathematician +capable of squaring the circle; the only mechanic acquainted with the +principle of perpetual motion; the only scientific philosopher who can +compel water to run up hill; the only writer of the age whose genius is +equal to the production of an epic poem; and, finally, so various are +his accomplishments, the only professor of gymnastics who has succeeded +in jumping down his own throat. With all these talents, however, he is +so far from being considered a member of good society, that it is the +severest censure of any fashionable assemblage to affirm that this +remarkable individual was present. Public orators, lecturers, and +theatrical performers particularly eschew his company. For especial +reasons, we are not at liberty to disclose his name, and shall mention +only one other trait,—a most singular phenomenon in natural +philosophy,—that, when he happens to cast his eyes upon a +looking-glass, he beholds Nobody reflected there! + +Several other guests now made their appearance; and among them, +chattering with immense volubility, a brisk little gentleman of +universal vogue in private society, and not unknown in the public +journals under the title of Monsieur On-Dit. The name would seem to +indicate a Frenchman; but, whatever be his country, he is thoroughly +versed in all the languages of the day, and can express himself quite +as much to the purpose in English as in any other tongue. No sooner +were the ceremonies of salutation over than this talkative little +person put his mouth to the host’s ear and whispered three secrets of +state, an important piece of commercial intelligence, and a rich item +of fashionable scandal. He then assured the Man of Fancy that he would +not fail to circulate in the society of the lower world a minute +description of this magnificent castle in the air and of the +festivities at which he had the honor to be a guest. So saying, +Monsieur On-Dit made his bow and hurried from one to another of the +company, with all of whom he seemed to be acquainted and to possess +some topic of interest or amusement for every individual. Coming at +last to the Oldest Inhabitant, who was slumbering comfortably in the +easy-chair, he applied his mouth to that venerable ear. + +“What do you say?” cried the old gentleman, starting from his nap and +putting up his hand to serve the purpose of an ear-trumpet. + +Monsieur On-Dit bent forward again and repeated his communication. + +“Never within my memory,” exclaimed the Oldest Inhabitant, lifting his +hands in astonishment, “has so remarkable an incident been heard of.” + +Now came in the Clerk of the Weather, who had been invited out of +deference to his official station, although the host was well aware +that his conversation was likely to contribute but little to the +general enjoyment. He soon, indeed, got into a corner with his +acquaintance of long ago, the Oldest Inhabitant, and began to compare +notes with him in reference to the great storms, gales of wind, and +other atmospherical facts that had occurred during a century past. It +rejoiced the Man of Fancy that his venerable and much-respected guest +had met with so congenial an associate. Entreating them both to make +themselves perfectly at home, he now turned to receive the Wandering +Jew. This personage, however, had latterly grown so common, by mingling +in all sorts of society and appearing at the beck of every entertainer, +that he could hardly be deemed a proper guest in a very exclusive +circle. Besides, being covered with dust from his continual wanderings +along the highways of the world, he really looked out of place in a +dress party; so that the host felt relieved of an incommodity when the +restless individual in question, after a brief stay, took his departure +on a ramble towards Oregon. + +The portal was now thronged by a crowd of shadowy people with whom the +Man of Fancy had been acquainted in his visionary youth. He had invited +them hither for the sake of observing how they would compare, whether +advantageously or otherwise, with the real characters to whom his +maturer life had introduced him. They were beings of crude imagination, +such as glide before a young man’s eye and pretend to be actual +inhabitants of the earth; the wise and witty with whom he would +hereafter hold intercourse; the generous and heroic friends whose +devotion would be requited with his own; the beautiful dream-woman who +would become the helpmate of his human toils and sorrows and at once +the source and partaker of his happiness. Alas! it is not good for the +full-grown man to look too closely at these old acquaintances, but +rather to reverence them at a distance through the medium of years that +have gathered duskily between. There was something laughably untrue in +their pompous stride and exaggerated sentiment; they were neither human +nor tolerable likenesses of humanity, but fantastic maskers, rendering +heroism and nature alike ridiculous by the grave absurdity of their +pretensions to such attributes; and as for the peerless dream-lady, +behold! there advanced up the saloon, with a movement like a jointed +doll, a sort of wax-figure of an angel, a creature as cold as +moonshine, an artifice in petticoats, with an intellect of pretty +phrases and only the semblance of a heart, yet in all these particulars +the true type of a young man’s imaginary mistress. Hardly could the +host’s punctilious courtesy restrain a smile as he paid his respects to +this unreality and met the sentimental glance with which the Dream +sought to remind him of their former love passages. + +“No, no, fair lady,” murmured he betwixt sighing and smiling; “my taste +is changed; I have learned to love what Nature makes better than my own +creations in the guise of womanhood.” + +“Ah, false one,” shrieked the dream-lady, pretending to faint, but +dissolving into thin air, out of which came the deplorable murmur of +her voice, “your inconstancy has annihilated me.” + +“So be it,” said the cruel Man of Fancy to himself; “and a good +riddance too.” + +Together with these shadows, and from the same region, there came an +uninvited multitude of shapes which at any time during his life had +tormented the Man of Fancy in his moods of morbid melancholy or had +haunted him in the delirium of fever. The walls of his castle in the +air were not dense enough to keep them out, nor would the strongest of +earthly architecture have availed to their exclusion. Here were those +forms of dim terror which had beset him at the entrance of life, waging +warfare with his hopes; here were strange uglinesses of earlier date, +such as haunt children in the night-time. He was particularly startled +by the vision of a deformed old black woman whom he imagined as lurking +in the garret of his native home, and who, when he was an infant, had +once come to his bedside and grinned at him in the crisis of a scarlet +fever. This same black shadow, with others almost as hideous, now +glided among the pillars of the magnificent saloon, grinning +recognition, until the man shuddered anew at the forgotten terrors of +his childhood. It amused him, however, to observe the black woman, with +the mischievous caprice peculiar to such beings, steal up to the chair +of the Oldest Inhabitant and peep into his half-dreamy mind. + +“Never within my memory,” muttered that venerable personage, aghast, +“did I see such a face.” + +Almost immediately after the unrealities just described, arrived a +number of guests whom incredulous readers may be inclined to rank +equally among creatures of imagination. The most noteworthy were an +incorruptible Patriot; a Scholar without pedantry; a Priest without +worldly ambition; and a Beautiful Woman without pride or coquetry; a +Married Pair whose life had never been disturbed by incongruity of +feeling; a Reformer untrammelled by his theory; and a Poet who felt no +jealousy towards other votaries of the lyre. In truth, however, the +host was not one of the cynics who consider these patterns of +excellence, without the fatal flaw, such rarities in the world; and he +had invited them to his select party chiefly out of humble deference to +the judgment of society, which pronounces them almost impossible to be +met with. + +“In my younger days,” observed the Oldest Inhabitant, “such characters +might be seen at the corner of every street.” + +Be that as it might, these specimens of perfection proved to be not +half so entertaining companions as people with the ordinary allowance +of faults. + +But now appeared a stranger, whom the host had no sooner recognized +than, with an abundance of courtesy unlavished on any other, he +hastened down the whole length of the saloon in order to pay him +emphatic honor. Yet he was a young man in poor attire, with no insignia +of rank or acknowledged eminence, nor anything to distinguish him among +the crowd except a high, white forehead, beneath which a pair of +deep-set eyes were glowing with warm light. It was such a light as +never illuminates the earth save when a great heart burns as the +household fire of a grand intellect. And who was he?—who but the Master +Genius for whom our country is looking anxiously into the mist of Time, +as destined to fulfil the great mission of creating an American +literature, hewing it, as it were, out of the unwrought granite of our +intellectual quarries? From him, whether moulded in the form of an epic +poem or assuming a guise altogether new as the spirit itself may +determine, we are to receive our first great original work, which shall +do all that remains to be achieved for our glory among the nations. How +this child of a mighty destiny had been discovered by the Man of Fancy +it is of little consequence to mention. Suffice it that he dwells as +yet unhonored among men, unrecognized by those who have known him from +his cradle; the noble countenance which should be distinguished by a +halo diffused around it passes daily amid the throng of people toiling +and troubling themselves about the trifles of a moment, and none pay +reverence to the worker of immortality. Nor does it matter much to him, +in his triumph over all the ages, though a generation or two of his own +times shall do themselves the wrong to disregard him. + +By this time Monsieur On-Dit had caught up the stranger’s name and +destiny and was busily whispering the intelligence among the other +guests. + +“Pshaw!” said one. “There can never be an American genius.” + +“Pish!” cried another. “We have already as good poets as any in the +world. For my part, I desire to see no better.” + +And the Oldest Inhabitant, when it was proposed to introduce him to the +Master Genius, begged to be excused, observing that a man who had been +honored with the acquaintance of Dwight, and Freneau, and Joel Barlow, +might be allowed a little austerity of taste. + +The saloon was now fast filling up by the arrival of other remarkable +characters, among whom were noticed Davy Jones, the distinguished +nautical personage, and a rude, carelessly dressed, harum-scarum sort +of elderly fellow, known by the nickname of Old Harry. The latter, +however, after being shown to a dressing-room, reappeared with his gray +hair nicely combed, his clothes brushed, a clean dicky on his neck, and +altogether so changed in aspect as to merit the more respectful +appellation of Venerable Henry. Joel Doe and Richard Roe came arm in +arm, accompanied by a Man of Straw, a fictitious indorser, and several +persons who had no existence except as voters in closely contested +elections. The celebrated Seatsfield, who now entered, was at first +supposed to belong to the same brotherhood, until he made it apparent +that he was a real man of flesh and blood and had his earthly domicile +in Germany. Among the latest comers, as might reasonably be expected, +arrived a guest from the far future. + +“Do you know him? do you know him?” whispered Monsieur On-Dit, who +seemed to be acquainted with everybody. “He is the representative of +Posterity,—the man of an age to come.” + +“And how came he here?” asked a figure who was evidently the prototype +of the fashion-plate in a magazine, and might be taken to represent the +vanities of the passing moment. “The fellow infringes upon our rights +by coming before his time.” + +“But you forget where we are,” answered the Man of Fancy, who overheard +the remark. “The lower earth, it is true, will be forbidden ground to +him for many long years hence; but a castle in the air is a sort of +no-man’s-land, where Posterity may make acquaintance with us on equal +terms.” + +No sooner was his identity known than a throng of guests gathered about +Posterity, all expressing the most generous interest in his welfare, +and many boasting of the sacrifices which they had made, or were +willing to make, in his behalf. Some, with as much secrecy as possible, +desired his judgment upon certain copies of verses or great manuscript +rolls of prose; others accosted him with the familiarity of old +friends, taking it for granted that he was perfectly cognizant of their +names and characters. At length, finding himself thus beset, Posterity +was put quite beside his patience. + +“Gentlemen, my good friends,” cried he, breaking loose from a misty +poet who strove to hold him by the button, “I pray you to attend to +your own business, and leave me to take care of mine! I expect to owe +you nothing, unless it be certain national debts, and other +encumbrances and impediments, physical and moral, which I shall find it +troublesome enough to remove from my path. As to your verses, pray read +them to your contemporaries. Your names are as strange to me as your +faces; and even were it otherwise,—let me whisper you a secret,—the +cold, icy memory which one generation may retain of another is but a +poor recompense to barter life for. Yet, if your heart is set on being +known to me, the surest, the only method is, to live truly and wisely +for your own age, whereby, if the native force be in you, you may +likewise live for posterity.” + +“It is nonsense,” murmured the Oldest Inhabitant, who, as a man of the +past, felt jealous that all notice should be withdrawn from himself to +be lavished on the future, “sheer nonsense, to waste so much thought on +what only is to be.” + +To divert the minds of his guests, who were considerably abashed by +this little incident, the Man of Fancy led them through several +apartments of the castle, receiving their compliments upon the taste +and varied magnificence that were displayed in each. One of these rooms +was filled with moonlight, which did not enter through the window, but +was the aggregate of all the moonshine that is scattered around the +earth on a summer night while no eyes are awake to enjoy its beauty. +Airy spirits had gathered it up, wherever they found it gleaming on the +broad bosom of a lake, or silvering the meanders of a stream, or +glimmering among the wind-stirred boughs of a wood, and had garnered it +in this one spacious hall. Along the walls, illuminated by the mild +intensity of the moonshine, stood a multitude of ideal statues, the +original conceptions of the great works of ancient or modern art, which +the sculptors did but imperfectly succeed in putting into marble; for +it is not to be supposed that the pure idea of an immortal creation +ceases to exist; it is only necessary to know where they are deposited +in order to obtain possession of them.—In the alcoves of another vast +apartment was arranged a splendid library, the volumes of which were +inestimable, because they consisted, not of actual performances, but of +the works which the authors only planned, without ever finding the +happy season to achieve them. To take familiar instances, here were the +untold tales of Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims; the unwritten cantos of +the Fairy Queen; the conclusion of Coleridge’s Christabel; and the +whole of Dryden’s projected epic on the subject of King Arthur. The +shelves were crowded; for it would not be too much to affirm that every +author has imagined and shaped out in his thought more and far better +works than those which actually proceeded from his pen. And here, +likewise, where the unrealized conceptions of youthful poets who died +of the very strength of their own genius before the world had caught +one inspired murmur from their lips. + +When the peculiarities of the library and statue-gallery were explained +to the Oldest Inhabitant, he appeared infinitely perplexed, and +exclaimed, with more energy than usual, that he had never heard of such +a thing within his memory, and, moreover, did not at all understand how +it could be. + +“But my brain, I think,” said the good old gentleman, “is getting not +so clear as it used to be. You young folks, I suppose, can see your way +through these strange matters. For my part, I give it up.” + +“And so do I,” muttered the Old Harry. “It is enough to puzzle +the—Ahem!” + +Making as little reply as possible to these observations, the Man of +Fancy preceded the company to another noble saloon, the pillars of +which were solid golden sunbeams taken out of the sky in the first hour +in the morning. Thus, as they retained all their living lustre, the +room was filled with the most cheerful radiance imaginable, yet not too +dazzling to be borne with comfort and delight. The windows were +beautifully adorned with curtains made of the many-colored clouds of +sunrise, all imbued with virgin light, and hanging in magnificent +festoons from the ceiling to the floor. Moreover, there were fragments +of rainbows scattered through the room; so that the guests, astonished +at one another, reciprocally saw their heads made glorious by the seven +primary hues; or, if they chose,—as who would not?—they could grasp a +rainbow in the air and convert it to their own apparel and adornment. +But the morning light and scattered rainbows were only a type and +symbol of the real wonders of the apartment. By an influence akin to +magic, yet perfectly natural, whatever means and opportunities of joy +are neglected in the lower world had been carefully gathered up and +deposited in the saloon of morning sunshine. As may well be conceived, +therefore, there was material enough to supply, not merely a joyous +evening, but also a happy lifetime, to more than as many people as that +spacious apartment could contain. The company seemed to renew their +youth; while that pattern and proverbial standard of innocence, the +Child Unborn, frolicked to and fro among them, communicating his own +unwrinkled gayety to all who had the good fortune to witness his +gambols. + +“My honored friends,” said the Man of Fancy, after they had enjoyed +themselves awhile, “I am now to request your presence in the +banqueting-hall, where a slight collation is awaiting you.” + +“Ah, well said!” ejaculated a cadaverous figure, who had been invited +for no other reason than that he was pretty constantly in the habit of +dining with Duke Humphrey. “I was beginning to wonder whether a castle +in the air were provided with a kitchen.” + +It was curious, in truth, to see how instantaneously the guests were +diverted from the high moral enjoyments which they had been tasting +with so much apparent zest by a suggestion of the more solid as well as +liquid delights of the festive board. They thronged eagerly in the rear +of the host, who now ushered them into a lofty and extensive hall, from +end to end of which was arranged a table, glittering all over with +innumerable dishes and drinking-vessels of gold. It is an uncertain +point whether these rich articles of plate were made for the occasion +out of molten sunbeams, or recovered from the wrecks of Spanish +galleons that had lain for ages at the bottom of the sea. The upper end +of the table was overshadowed by a canopy, beneath which was placed a +chair of elaborate magnificence, which the host himself declined to +occupy, and besought his guests to assign it to the worthiest among +them. As a suitable homage to his incalculable antiquity and eminent +distinction, the post of honor was at first tendered to the Oldest +Inhabitant. He, however, eschewed it, and requested the favor of a bowl +of gruel at a side table, where he could refresh himself with a quiet +nap. There was some little hesitation as to the next candidate, until +Posterity took the Master Genius of our country by the hand and led him +to the chair of state beneath the princely canopy. When once they +beheld him in his true place, the company acknowledged the justice of +the selection by a long thunder-roll of vehement applause. + +Then was served up a banquet, combining, if not all the delicacies of +the season, yet all the rarities which careful purveyors had met with +in the flesh, fish, and vegetable markets of the land of Nowhere. The +bill of fare being unfortunately lost, we can only mention a phoenix, +roasted in its own flames, cold potted birds of paradise, ice-creams +from the Milky-Way, and whip syllabubs and flummery from the Paradise +of Fools, whereof there was a very great consumption. As for +drinkables, the temperance people contented themselves with water as +usual; but it was the water of the Fountain of Youth; the ladies sipped +Nepenthe; the lovelorn, the careworn, and the sorrow-stricken were +supplied with brimming goblets of Lethe; and it was shrewdly +conjectured that a certain golden vase, from which only the more +distinguished guests were invited to partake, contained nectar that had +been mellowing ever since the days of classical mythology. The cloth +being removed, the company, as usual, grew eloquent over their liquor +and delivered themselves of a succession of brilliant speeches,—the +task of reporting which we resign to the more adequate ability of +Counsellor Gill, whose indispensable co-operation the Man of Fancy had +taken the precaution to secure. + +When the festivity of the banquet was at its most ethereal point, the +Clerk of the Weather was observed to steal from the table and thrust +his head between the purple and golden curtains of one of the windows. + +“My fellow-guests,” he remarked aloud, after carefully noting the signs +of the night, “I advise such of you as live at a distance to be going +as soon as possible; for a thunder-storm is certainly at hand.” + +“Mercy on me!” cried Mother Carey, who had left her brood of chickens +and come hither in gossamer drapery, with pink silk stockings. “How +shall I ever get home?” + +All now was confusion and hasty departure, with but little superfluous +leave-taking. The Oldest Inhabitant, however, true to the rule of those +long past days in which his courtesy had been studied, paused on the +threshold of the meteor-lighted hall to express his vast satisfaction +at the entertainment. + +“Never, within my memory,” observed the gracious old gentleman, “has it +been my good fortune to spend a pleasanter evening or in more select +society.” + +The wind here took his breath away, whirled his three-cornered hat into +infinite space, and drowned what further compliments it had been his +purpose to bestow. Many of the company had bespoken will-o’-the-wisps +to convoy them home; and the host, in his general beneficence, had +engaged the Man in the Moon, with an immense horn-lantern, to be the +guide of such desolate spinsters as could do no better for themselves. +But a blast of the rising tempest blew out all their lights in the +twinkling of an eye. How, in the darkness that ensued, the guests +contrived to get back to earth, or whether the greater part of them +contrived to get back at all, or are still wandering among clouds, +mists, and puffs of tempestuous wind, bruised by the beams and rafters +of the overthrown castle in the air, and deluded by all sorts of +unrealities, are points that concern themselves much more than the +writer or the public. People should think of these matters before they +trust themselves on a pleasure-party into the realm of Nowhere. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SELECT PARTY *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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