on his high arched instep, marred the harmonious glitter of
his boots. Sir Edward was fastidious. Casting his eyes around, at a
little distance he perceived the stand of a youthful bootblack.
Thither he sauntered, and carelessly placing his foot on the low stool,
he waited the application of the polisher's art. "'Tis true," said Sir
Edward to himself, yet half aloud, "the contact of the Foul and the
Disgusting mars the general effect of the Shiny and the Beautiful--and,
yet, why am I here? I repeat it, calmly and deliberately--why am I
here? Ha! Boy!"

The Boy looked up--his dark Italian eyes glanced intelligently at the
Philosopher, and as with one hand he tossed back his glossy curls, from
his marble brow, and with the other he spread the equally glossy Day &
Martin over the Baronet's boot, he answered in deep rich tones: "The
Ideal is subjective to the Real. The exercise of apperception gives a
distinctiveness to idiocracy, which is, however, subject to the limits
of ME. You are an admirer of the Beautiful, sir. You wish your boots
blacked. The Beautiful is attainable by means of the Coin."

"Ah," said Sir Edward thoughtfully, gazing upon the almost supernal
beauty of the Child before him; "you speak well. You have read Kant."

The Boy blushed deeply. He drew a copy of Kant from his blouse, but in
his confusion several other volumes dropped from his bosom on the
ground. The Baronet picked them up.

"Ah!" said the Philosopher, "what's this? Cicero's De Senectute, at
your age, too? Martial's Epigrams, Caesar's Commentaries. What! a
classical scholar?"

"E pluribus Unum. Nux vomica. Nil desperandum. Nihil fit!" said the
Boy, enthusiastically. The Philosopher gazed at the Child. A strange
presence seemed to transfuse and possess him. Over the brow of the Boy
glittered the pale nimbus of the Student.

"Ah, and Schiller's Robbers, too?" queried the Philosopher.

"Das ist ausgespielt," said the Boy, modestly.

"Then you have read my translation of Schiller's Ballads?" continued
the Baronet, with some show of interest.

"I have, and infinitely prefer them to the original," said the Boy,
with intellectual warmth. "You have shown how in Actual life we strive
for a Goal we cannot reach; how in the Ideal the Goal is attainable,
and there effort is victory. You have given us the Antithesis which is
a key to the Remainder, and constantly balances before us the
conditions of the Actual and the privil