All Men are Ghosts

ocussed on a solitary point. From a world-wide mission to all mankind we narrowed down at a single stroke to a concentrated operation on a strictly li

?" had been asked and duly answered in the affirmative. We had raised ourselves

a ripping notion, a regular st

t is

d listen like mad. Suppose you were to m

e answer-"I should ask h

l do it, the very next time we meet one. An

am

he Park, we seemed to have reached the threshold of a new world. We stood on a peak in Darien; and before us there shimmered an enchanted sea lit by the softest of lights and tinted with the fairest of co

as he made a dart forward at a girl in a white frock, "till we find

have often thought was the strangest thing Billy ever uttered. "I wouldn'

e more difficult to satisfy, became our ideal. At each fresh contact with reality it rose higher and outran the facts of life, until we were on the point of concluding that the world contained no woman beautiful enough to be asked the time. Never were women stared at with greater innocence of

t our own age, walking all alone. "That

Presently he clutched my jacket, "Sto

girl was ru

d Billy, who was a little g

wered, "and thought we wanted to steal it. She h

of realisation, and a freak of contingency had spoiled it. In another moment "time" would have been revealed to us by one wort

after day. But we were now half-hearted and we became aware of a str

own by the river. They are better-looking down there, especially

aking audible remarks about their personal appearance. Were we the culprits? We confessed that we were. What did we mean by it? We were silent: not for a whole Archipelago packed full of buried treasure would we have answered that question. Did we consider it conduct worthy of gentlemen? We said we did

ever think of asking them to tell us the time!). Finally we were forbidden, under threat o

e left the room, "that we've already made up our min

s at intervals, ran under the willows. Here a new order of beauty seemed to present itself, and our hopes ran high. Several promising candidates prese

willing to ask Scarlet Feather. She's ripping. Her nose takes the cake; but, mind you, Gray Muff has the prettier boots. And I know Scarlet Feather has a watch-I saw the

ly I saw, dancing about on the surface of the water-but doubtless the whole thing was hallucination! My

en return of Billy. He was white as t

found the very one! Quick,

ay Muff?"

Very One, I tell you. The O

seen a Good One too. She was

I say! I'm certain she won't wait. She looked as t

Billy?" I asked a

he exact image of

st lovely and commendable in woman. O Billy's mater, will these eyes ever see you again? How glad I am to remember you! I know where you lie buried, but I doubt if there

ean forgotten as if they had never existed-as perhaps one of them never did. "Just like my mater!" Billy kept gasping. "Hur

in utter silence, and very slowly, crept up to the empty seat, gazing round us as we walked. Was there ever such a melancholy walk! Oh, what a Via Dolorosa we found it! Arr

h, why weren't we quicker! Oh, why didn't

with a feeling of awe that I had become privy to something deep in Billy's soul. And I inwardly resolved that, so far as I coul

hours of the next morning, "come and stay with u

t is

ait an

n disaster and tears. Never again did Billy