een a happy one. Did you
ever meet him again?

_Miss Ilex._ Not of late years, but for a time occasionally in general
society, which he very sparingly entered. Our intercourse was friendly;
but he never knew, never imagined, how well I loved him, nor even,
perhaps, that I had loved him at all. I had kept my secret only too well
He retained his wandering habits, disappearing from time to time, but
always returning home, I believe he had no cause to complain of his
wife. Yet I cannot help thinking that I could have fixed him and kept
him at home. Your case is in many respects similar to mine; but the
rivalry to me was in a wandering fancy: to you it is in fixed domestic
affections. Still, you were in as much danger as I was of being the
victim of an idea and a punctilio: and you have taken the only course to
save you from it. I regret that I gave in to the punctilio: but I
would not part with the idea. I find a charm in the recollection far
preferable to

The waveless calm, the slumber of the dead which weighs on
the minds of those who have never loved, or never earnestly.

CHAPTER XXVIII

ARISTOPHANES IN LONDON

Non duco contentionis funern, dum constet inter nos, quod
fere totus mundus exerceat histrioniam.--Petronius Arbiter.

I do not draw the rope of contention,{1} while it is agreed
amongst us, that almost the whole world practises acting.

1 A metaphor apparently taken from persons pulling in
opposite directions at each end of a rope. I cannot see, as
some have done, that it has anything in common with Horace's
_Tortum digna sequi potius quant ducere funern_: 'More
worthy to follow than to lead the tightened cord': which is
a metaphor taken from a towing line, or any line acting in a
similar manner, where one draws and another is drawn. Horace
applies it to money, which he says should be the slave, and
not the master of its possessor.

All the world's a stage.--Shakespeare.

En el teatro del mundo
Todos son representantes.--Calderon.

Tous les comediens ne sont pas au theatre.
--_French Proverb._

Rain came, and thaw, followed by drying wind. The roads were in good
order for the visitors to the Aristophanic comedy. The fifth day of
Christmas was fixed for the performance. The theatre was brilliantly
lighted, with spermaceti candles in glass chandeliers