As soon as he was alone Alwyn took out from his breast pocket a small velvet letter-case, from which he gently drew forth a slightly pressed but unfaded white flower. Setting this in a glass of water he placed it near his bed, and watched it for a moment. Delicately and gradually its pressed petals expanded, . . its golden corolla brightened in hue, . . a subtle, sweet odor permeated the air, . . and soon the angelic “immortelle” of the Field of Ardath shone wondrously as a white star in the quiet room. And when the lamp was extinguished and the poet slept, that strange, fair blossom seemed to watch him like a soft, luminous eye in the darkness,—a symbol of things divine and lasting,—a token of far and brilliant worlds where even flowers cannot fade!
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Realism.
At the end of about a week or so, it became very generally known among the mystic “Upper Ten” of artistic and literary circles, that Theos Alwyn, the famous author of “Nourhalma” was, to put it fashionably, “in town.” According to the classic phrasing of a leading society journal, “Mr. Theos Alwyn, the poet, whom some of our contemporaries erroneously reported as dead, has arrived in London from his tour in the East. He is for the present a guest of the Honorable Francis Villiers.” The consequence of this and other similar announcements was, that the postman seemed never to be away from Villiers’s door; and every time he came he was laden with letters and cards of invitation, addressed, for the most part, to Villiers himself, who, with something of dismay, saw his study table getting gradually covered with accumulating piles of society litter, such as is comprised in the various formal notifications of dinners, dances, balls, soirees, “at homes,” and all the divers sorts of entertainment with which the English “s’amusent moult tristement.” Some of these invitations, less ceremonious, were in form of pretty little notes from great ladies, who entreated their “Dear Mr. Villiers” to give them the “Extreme honor and pleasure” of his company at certain select and extra brilliant receptions where Royalty itself would be represented, adding, as an earnest postscript—“and do bring the lion, you know, your very interesting friend, Mr. Alwyn, with you!”—A good many such billets-doux were addressed to Alwyn personally, and as he opened and read them he was somewhat amused to see how many who had formerly been mere bowing acquaintances were now suddenly, almost magically, transformed into apparently eager, admiring, and devoted friends.
“One would think these people really liked me for myself,”—he said one morning, tossing aside a particularly gushing, pressing note from a lady who was celebrated for the motley crowds she managed to squeeze into her rooms, regardless of any one’s comfort or convenience,—“And yet, as the matter stands, they actually know nothing of me. I might be a villain of the deepest dye, a kickable cad, or a coarse ruffian, but so long as I have written a ‘successful’ book and am a ’somebody’—a literary ’notable’—what matter my tastes, my morals, or my disposition! If this sort of thing is Fame, all I can say is, that it savors of very detestable vulgarity!”