old wine await you.

THE CHORUS
Shadows to-night have offered portraits true
Of many follies which the world enthrall.
'Shadows we are, and shadows we pursue':
But, in the banquet's well-illumined hall,
Realides, delectable to all,
Invite you now our festal joy to share.
Could we our Attic prototype recall,
One compound word should give our bill of fare: {1}
But where our language fails, our hearts true welcome bear.

1 As at the end of the Ecclesusae

[Illustration: Miss Gryll was resplendent as Circe 268-226]

Miss Gryll was resplendent as Circe; and _Miss Niphet._, as leader of
the chorus, looked like Melpomene herself, slightly unbending her tragic
severity into that solemn smile which characterised the chorus of the
old comedy. The charm of the first acted irresistibly on _Mr. Falconer._
The second would have completed, if anything had been wanted to complete
it, the conquest of _Lord Curryfin._

The supper passed off joyously, and it was a late hour of the morning
before the company dispersed.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE BALD VENUS--INEZ DE CASTRO--THE UNITY OF LOVE

Within the temple of my purer mind
One imaged form shall ever live enshrined,
And hear the vows, to first affection due,
Still breathed: for love that ceases ne'er was true.
--Leyden's Scenes of Infancy.

An interval of a week was interposed between the comedy and the intended
ball. Mr. Falconer having no fancy for balls, and disturbed beyond
endurance by the interdict which Miss Gryll had laid on him against
speaking, for four times seven days, on the subject nearest his
heart, having discharged with becoming self-command his share in the
Aristophanic comedy, determined to pass his remaining days of probation
in the Tower, where he found, in the attentions of the seven sisters,
not a perfect Nepenthe, but the only possible antidote to intense
vexation of spirit. It is true, his two Hebes, pouring out his Madeira,
approximated as nearly as anything could do to Helen's administration of
the true Nepenthe. He might have sung of Madeira, as Redi's Bacchus sang
of one of his favourite wines:--

Egli e il vero oro potabile,
Che mandar suole in esilio
Ogni male inrimediabile:
Egli e d* Elena il Nepente,
Che fa stare il mondo allegro,
Dai pensieri
Foschi e neri
Sempre sciolto, e sempre esente.{1}

1 Redi: Bacco in To