rom any side I could turn it to the same golden glow. I rejoiced in
the promise of a hero so mature, who would give me thereby the more to
bite into--since it's only into thickened motive and accumulated
character, I think, that the painter of life bites more than a little.
My poor friend should have accumulated character, certainly; or rather
would be quite naturally and handsomely possessed of it, in the sense
that he would have, and would always have felt he had, imagination
galore, and that this yet wouldn't have wrecked him. It was
immeasurable, the opportunity to "do" a man of imagination, for if
THERE mightn't be a chance to "bite," where in the world might it be?
This personage of course, so enriched, wouldn't give me, for his type,
imagination in PREDOMINANCE or as his prime faculty, nor should I, in
view of other matters, have found that convenient. So particular a
luxury--some occasion, that is, for study of the high gift in SUPREME
command of a case or of a career--would still doubtless come on the day
I should be ready to pay for it; and till then might, as from far back,
remain hung up well in view and just out of reach. The comparative case
meanwhile would serve--it was only on the minor scale that I had
treated myself even to comparative cases.

I was to hasten to add however that, happy stopgaps as the minor scale
had thus yielded, the instance in hand should enjoy the advantage of
the full range of the major; since most immediately to the point was
the question of that SUPPLEMENT of situation logically involved in our
gentleman's impulse to deliver himself in the Paris garden on the
Sunday afternoon--or if not involved by strict logic then all ideally
and enchantingly implied in it. (I say "ideally," because I need
scarce mention that for development, for expression of its maximum, my
glimmering story was, at the earliest stage, to have nipped the thread
of connexion with the possibilities of the actual reported speaker. HE
remains but the happiest of accidents; his actualities, all too
definite, precluded any range of possibilities; it had only been his
charming office to project upon that wide field of the artist's
vision--which hangs there ever in place like the white sheet suspended
for the figures of a child's magic-lantern--a more fantastic and more
moveable shadow.) No privilege of the teller of tales and the handler
of puppets is more delightful, or has more of the suspense and the
thrill