he might overhear our discussion
without embarrassing us by his presence. He had covered up his delight
at our appreciation by this simulated interest in the hunting print.

When the night came for the review of the Procrustes there was a large
attendance of members, and several visitors, among them a young English
cousin of one of the members, on his first visit to the United States;
some of us had met him at other clubs, and in society, and had found
him a very jolly boy, with a youthful exuberance of spirits and a naive
ignorance of things American that made his views refreshing and, at
times, amusing.

The critical essays were well considered, if a trifle vague. Baxter
received credit for poetic skill of a high order.

"Our brother Baxter," said Thompson, "should no longer bury his talent
in a napkin. This gem, of course, belongs to the club, but the same
brain from which issued this exquisite emanation can produce others to
inspire and charm an appreciative world."

"The author's view of life," said Davis, "as expressed in these
beautiful lines, will help us to fit our shoulders for the heavy
burden of life, by bringing to our realization those profound truths
of philosophy which find hope in despair and pleasure in pain. When he
shall see fit to give to the wider world, in fuller form, the thoughts
of which we have been vouchsafed this foretaste, let us hope that some
little ray of his fame may rest upon the Bodleian, from which can never
be taken away the proud privilege of saying that he was one of its
members."

I then pointed out the beauties of the volume as a piece of bookmaking.
I knew, from conversation with the publication committee, the style of
type and rubrication, and could see the cover through the wrapper of my
sealed copy. The dark green morocco, I said, in summing up, typified the
author's serious view of life, as a thing to be endured as patiently as
might be. The cap-and-bells border was significant of the shams by which
the optimist sought to delude himself into the view that life was a
desirable thing. The intricate blind-tooling of the doublure shadowed
forth the blind fate which left us in ignorance of our future and our
past, or of even what the day itself might bring forth. The black-letter
type, with rubricated initials, signified a philosophic pessimism
enlightened by the conviction that in duty one might find, after all, an
excuse for life and a hope for humanity. Applying this t