Genre Fiction. Page - 247

rently in token of approval and assent to all this, and bent an inquisitorial interrogative gaze upon his visitor.

"I have come to trouble you a second time, Krestyan Ivanovitch," began Mr. Golyadkin, with a smile, "and now I venture to ask your indulgence a second time...." He was obviously at a loss for words.

"H'm... Yes!" pronounced Krestyan Ivanovitch, puffing out a spiral of smoke and putting down his cigar on the table, "but you must follow the treatment prescribed to you; I explained to you that what would be beneficial to your health is a change of habits.... Entertainment, for instance, and, well, friends - you should visit your acquaintances, and not be hostile to the bottle; and likewise keep cheerful company."

Mr. Golyadkin, still smiling, hastened to observe that he thought he was like every one else, that he lived by himself, that he had entertainments like every one else... that, of course, he might go to the theatre, for he had the means like every one else, that he spent

o go to such lengths, and I also hate you and stillmore--because you are so necessary to me. For the time being Iwant you, so I must keep you."

Then she made a movement to rise. Her tone had sounded veryangry. Indeed, of late her talks with me had invariably ended ona note of temper and irritation--yes, of real temper.

"May I ask you who is this Mlle. Blanche?" I inquired (since Idid not wish Polina to depart without an explanation).

"You KNOW who she is--just Mlle. Blanche. Nothing further hastranspired. Probably she will soon be Madame General--that is tosay, if the rumours that Grandmamma is nearing her end shouldprove true. Mlle. Blanche, with her mother and her cousin, theMarquis, know very well that, as things now stand, we areruined."

"And is the General at last in love?"

"That has nothing to do with it. Listen to me. Take these 700florins, and go and play roulette with them. Win as much for meas you can, for I am badly in need of money.

So saying, she called Nadia back to

and; his face expressed horror and disgust, yet there was in it also the mark of imperious command and confident power. The left half of the picture was the strangest, however. The interest plainly centred there.

On the pavement before the throne were grouped four soldiers, surrounding a crouching figure which must be described in a moment. A fifth soldier lay dead on the pavement, his neck distorted, and his eye-balls starting from his head. The four surrounding guards were looking at the King. In their faces, the sentiment of horror was intensified; they seemed, in fact, only restrained from flight by their implicit trust in their master. All this terror was plainly excited by the being that crouched in their midst.

I entirely despair of conveying by any words the impression which this figure makes upon anyone who looks at it. I recollect once showing the photograph of the drawing to a lecturer on morphology--a person of, I was going to say, abnormally sane and unimaginative habits of mind. He

ttered nerves, Professor Maxon sailed with his daughter for a long ocean voyage, which he hoped would aid him in rapid recuperation, and permit him to forget the nightmare memory of those three horrible days and nights in his workshop.

He believed that he had reached an unalterable decision never again to meddle with the mighty, awe inspiring secrets of creation; but with returning health and balance he found himself viewing his recent triumph with feelings of renewed hope and anticipation.

The morbid fears superinduced by the shock following the sudden demise of the first creature of his experiments had given place to a growing desire to further prosecute his labors until enduring success had crowned his efforts with an achievement which he might exhibit with pride to the scientific world.

His recent disastrous success had convinced him that neither Ithaca nor any other abode of civilization was a safe place to continue his experiments, but it was not until their cruising had brought the

rshes of Sonaput.

THIS Uninhabited Island

Is off Cape Gardafui,

By the Beaches of Socotra

And the Pink Arabian Sea:

But it's hot--too hot from Suez

For the likes of you and me

Ever to go

In a P. and 0.

And call on the Cake-Parsee!

HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS

IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. 'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and 'sclusively tufts of sandy- yellowish grass. The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the 'sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all--a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to

up all these years to get his crown, and everything!"

And wise people shook their heads and foretold a decline in the National Love of Sport. And, indeed, soccer was not at all popular for some time afterward.

Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, and the people were beginning to forgive him for letting the Dragon out of the book. "After all," they said, "soccer is a dangerous game, and perhaps it is wise to discourage it."

Popular opinion held that the Soccer Players, being tough and hard, had disagreed with the Dragon so much that he had gone away to some place where they only play cats' cradle and games that do not make you hard and tough.

All the same, Parliament met on the Saturday afternoon, a convenient time, for most of the Members would be free to attend, to consider the Dragon. But unfortunately the Dragon, who had only been asleep, woke up because it was Saturday, and he considered the Parliament, and afterwards there were not any Members left, so they t

te unconstrained and careless, danced in the freedom andgaiety of their hearts.

If there were no such thing as display in the world, my privateopinion is, and I hope you agree with me, that we might get on agreat deal better than we do, and might be infinitely moreagreeable company than we are. It was charming to see how thesegirls danced. They had no spectators but the apple-pickers on theladders. They were very glad to please them, but they danced toplease themselves (or at least you would have supposed so); and youcould no more help admiring, than they could help dancing. Howthey did dance!

Not like opera-dancers. Not at all. And not like Madame Anybody'sfinished pupils. Not the least. It was not quadrille dancing, norminuet dancing, nor even country-dance dancing. It was neither in the old style, nor the new style, nor the French style, nor theEnglish style: though it may have been, by accident, a trifle inthe Spanish style, which is a free and joyous one, I am t

do it; the result was the Jalaliera (so called from Jalal-ud-din, one of the king's names)--'acomputation of time,' says Gibbon, 'which surpasses the Julian, andapproaches the accuracy of the Gregorian style.' He is also theauthor of some astronomical tables, entitled 'Ziji-Malikshahi,' andthe French have lately republished and translated an Arabic Treatiseof his on Algebra.

"His Takhallus or poetical name (Khayyam) signifies a Tent-maker, andhe is said to have at one time exercised that trade, perhaps beforeNizam-ul-Mulk's generosity raised him to independence. Many Persianpoets similarly derive their names from their occupations; thus wehave Attar, 'a druggist,' Assar, 'an oil presser,' etc.<2> Omarhimself alludes to his name in the following whimsical lines:--

"'Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science,
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned;
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for

e was roused from her forgetfulness, by the sound of the castleclock, which struck one. Surprised at the lateness of the hour, sherose in haste, and was moving to her chamber, when the beauty of thenight attracted her to the window. She opened it; and observing a fineeffect of moonlight upon the dark woods, leaned forwards. In thatsituation she had not long remained, when she perceived a lightfaintly flash through a casement in the uninhabited part of thecastle. A sudden tremor seized her, and she with difficulty supportedherself. In a few moments it disappeared, and soon after a figure,bearing a lamp, proceeded from an obscure door belonging to the southtower; and stealing along the outside of the castle walls, turnedround the southern angle, by which it was afterwards hid from theview. Astonished and terrified at what she had seen, she hurried tothe apartment of Madame de Menon, and related the circumstance. Theservants were immediately roused, and the alarm became general. Madamearose and de

it, likewise, if the daughter-in-law [7] of the Rajah's house had left its seclusion. She was even prepared for this happening. But I did not consider it important enough to give her the pain of it. I have read in books that we are called "caged birds". I cannot speak for others, but I had so much in this cage of mine that there was not room for it in the universe--at least that is what I then felt.

The grandmother, in her old age, was very fond of me. At the bottom of her fondness was the thought that, with the conspiracy of favourable stars which attended me, I had been able to attract my husband's love. Were not men naturally inclined to plunge downwards? None of the others, for all their beauty, had been able to prevent their husbands going headlong into the burning depths which consumed and destroyed them. She believed that I had been the means of extinguishing this fire, so deadly to the men of the family. So she kept me in the shelter of her bosom, and trembled if I was in the least bit unwell.