"I have sometimes wondered, Mr. Buckingham," he said, "how you, who write stories of love and marriage, should remain unmarried."
"Let us put it the other way. How can I who am unmarried write such stories? In truth, I have a dim sense that persons like you, who know the matter by experience, must laugh inwardly at my innocent attempts at realistic treatment."
"Why not, then, have the experience first?" said Wilding lightly.
"God forbid!" said Buckingham, with a somewhat unintelligible seriousness. "If I were ever in love, it seems to me I should stop writing love-stories."
Now, this was just what happened, for a time at least. To any one so dead in love as Buckingham was at this time, all circumstances are favorable. It needs but a given moment, and the hero is on hand ready to seize it. The next night he could not ride out from the city; he must walk. When he got beyond the bridge, he wondered that he saw no horse-cars coming toward him. He remembered that he had seen none for some time, but now he noticed a long line of them standing before him, pointed outward. He heard the puff of a steam fire-engine, and saw that travel by rail was stopped by a fire. The hose crossed the track, and the incoming horse-cars were in a long line beyond it. He looked at the cars which he had over-taken. Midway in the line stood the one he had been accustomed to take. He caught sight of a familiar head bent over a book. He stepped into the car and stood before Miss Vila. He bent forward, and she looked up as he spoke:
"The cars are stopped by a fire. We may be delayed a long while. Why not walk home from here? It is a fine night."
He spoke somewhat hurriedly. He did not know how appealingly he looked. She did, however, and she closed her book and followed him.
The story, then, never was written, even though the heroine had been found. Everything else had disappeared,--the hero, the mystery, the plot. Nothing was left but the heroine and--love.
Shadows all! From the birth-robe to the pall, In this travesty of life, Hollow calm and fruitless strife, Whatsoe'er the actors seem, They are posturing in a dream; Fates may rise, and fates may fall, Shadows are we, shadows all!
From what sphere Float these phantoms flickering here? From what mystic circle cast In the dim æonian Past? Many voices make reply, But they only rise to die Down the midnight mystery, While earth's mocking echoes call, Shadows, shadows, shadows all!