To stand on the brink of adventure is interesting
in itself, and now that I could think over the details of my
expedition was no longer bored. So I stayed dreaming till the golden
moment for action was passed, and a violent exclamation from one of
the chess-players called me back to a prosaic world. In a second the
board was overturned and the players were locked in battle. My little
sister, who had already the feminine craving for tidiness, crept out
of her corner and meekly gathered the chessmen from under the feet of
the combatants. I had seen it all before, and while I led my forces
to the aid of the brother with whom at the moment I had some sort of
alliance, I reflected that I would have done better to dare the
adventure and set forth into the rainy world.
And this morning when I stood at my window, and my memory a little
cruelly restored to this vision of a day long dead, I was still of
the same opinion. Oh! I should have put on my boots and my waterproof
and gone down to the little wood to meet the enchanter! He would have
given me the cap of invisibility, the purse of Fortunatus, and a pair
of seven-league boots. He would have taught me to conquer worlds, and
to leave the easy triumphs of dreamers to madmen, philosophers, and
poets, He would have made me a man of action, a statesman, a soldier,
a founder of cities or a digger of graves. For there are two kinds of
men in the world when we have put aside the minor distinctions of
shape and colour.
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