eb about the faculties of the greatest
and
wisest of our race; but I thank Heaven I have never been
subjected to its singular fascination. For, oh, Phantis!
there is that within me that tells me that when my time
does
come, the convulsion will be tremendous! When I love, it
will be with the accumulated fervor of sixty-six years!
But
I have an ideal--a semi-transparent Being, filled with an
inorganic pink jelly--and I have never yet seen the woman
who approaches within measurable distance of it. All are
opaque--opaque--opaque!

Phantis: Keep that ideal firmly before you, and love not until you
find her. Though but fifty-five, I am an old campaigner
in
the battle-fields of Love; and, believe me, it is better
to
be as you are, heart-free and happy, than as I
am--eternally
racked with doubting agonies! Scaphio, the Princess Zara
returns from England today!

Scaphio: My poor boy, I see it all.

Phantis: Oh! Scaphio, she is so beautiful. Ah! you smile, for you
have never seen her. She sailed for England three months
before you took office.

Scaphio: Now tell me, is your affection requited?

Phantis: I do not know--I am not sure. Sometimes I think it is,
and
then come these torturing doubts! I feel sure that she
does
not regard me with absolute indifference, for she could
never look at me without having to go to bed with a sick
headache.

Scaphio: That is surely something. Come, take heart, boy! you
are
young and beautiful. What more could maiden want?

Phantis: Ah! Scaphio, remember she returns from a land where every
youth is as a young Greek god, and where such beauty as
I
can boast is seen at every turn.

Scaphio: Be of good cheer! Marry her, boy, if so your fancy
wills,
and be sure that love will come.

Phantis: (overjoyed) Then you will assist me in this?

Scaphio: Why, surely! Silly one, what have you to fear? We have
but
to say the word, and her father must consent. Is he not
our
very slave? Come, take heart. I cannot bear to see you
sad.

Phantis: Now I may hope, indeed! Scaphio, you have placed me