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diff --git a/old/haw4910.txt b/old/haw4910.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78257de --- /dev/null +++ b/old/haw4910.txt @@ -0,0 +1,938 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook, A Select Party, by Nathaniel Hawthorne +From "Mosses From An Old Manse" +#49 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: A Select Party (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: Nov, 2005 [EBook #9222] +[This file was first posted on September 6, 2003] +[Last updated on February 6, 2007] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SELECT PARTY *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + + MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + A SELECT PARTY + + + +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. 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