Going thither and returning Ellis would
entertain me by philosophical discussion, varied with improvised
stories, at first folk tales which he professed to have picked up in
Scotland; and though I had read and collected many folk tales, I did
not see through the deceit. I have a partial memory of two more
elaborate tales, one of an Italian conspirator flying barefoot from
I forget what adventure through I forget what Italian city, in the
early morning. Fearing to be recognised by his bare feet, he slipped
past the sleepy porter at an hotel calling out 'number so and so' as
if he were some belated guest. Then passing from bedroom door to
door he tried on the boots, and just as he got a pair to fit a voice
cried from the room 'Who is that?' 'Merely me, sir,' he called back,
'taking your boots.' The other was of a Martyr's Bible round which
the cardinal virtues had taken personal form--this a fragment of
Blake's philosophy. It was in the possession of an old clergyman
when a certain jockey called upon him, and the cardinal virtues,
confused between jockey and clergyman, devoted themselves to the
jockey.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74