CHAPTER III: AN INDICTMENT OF SPRING
The Quest Of The Golden Girl | ||
3. CHAPTER III: AN INDICTMENT OF SPRING
"MARRY! an odd adventure!'' I said to myself, as I stepped along in the spring morning air; for, being a pilgrim, I was involuntarily in a mediæval frame of mind, and "Marry! an odd adventure!'' came to my lips as though I had been one of that famous company that once started from the Tabard on a day in spring.
It had been the spring, it will be remembered, that had prompted them to go on pilgrimage; and me, too, the spring was filling with strange, undefinable longings, and though I flattered myself that I had set out in pursuance of a definitely taken resolve, I had really no more freedom in the matter than the children who followed at the heels of the mad piper.
A mad piper, indeed, this spring, with his wonderful lying music, — ever lying, yet ever
So I, too, with the rest of the world, was following in the wake of the magical music. The lie it was drawing me by is perhaps Spring's oldest, commonest lie, — the lying promise of the Perfect Woman, the Quite
I wonder if the reader would care to hear about my First Love, of whom I am naturally thinking a good deal this morning, under the demoralising influences of the fresh air, blue sky, and various birds and flowers. More potent intoxicants these than any that need licenses for their purveyance, responsible — see the poets — for no end of human foolishness.
I was about to tell the story of my First Love, but on second thoughts I decide not. It will keep, and I feel hungry, and yonder seems a dingle where I can lie and open my knapsack, eat, drink, and doze among the sun-flecked shadows.
CHAPTER III: AN INDICTMENT OF SPRING
The Quest Of The Golden Girl | ||