Now you can guess my secret from the last word. No need to burden you
with explanations. You know all. Who else but a lover would say "She,"
and expect to be understood without further remark? Yes, Jack, it has
come! I am in love. In love, Jack, with an angel--don't wrinkle your
brows, cynic!--and her name is Diana of Farbis. I have seen her to-day
for the third time, and, after a weak attempt to fight against Fate, I
have succumbed. The gipsy hag is right! I have met my fate at the
Gates of Dawn. Joy has come up through them, and I--unworthy creature
that I am--am rewarded far beyond my deserts. I should here quote
poetry, as prose is too feeble to express my meaning; but I refrain
lest you should refuse to finish this letter. I know how impatient you
are over rhyme sans reason.
In sober serious earnest, Jack, I am rather bewildered by the novel
sensation of being in love. When I first met this girl, I simply
caught a glimpse of a lovely face which I admired in an artistic way
as one admires a fine picture or a perfect statue. At our second
meeting she spoke to me, and I felt drawn towards her in the most
extraordinary manner. She babbled little else than nonsense, yet I
preferred such to the most sensible speeches. Thus does love make
fools of us all. Not that I then believed myself to be in love--though
I had a faint fear that it might be so. With the third meeting came
the full knowledge of my passion. To-day, Meg--that is her name--came
to my dell and had afternoon tea. We were in Arcady for the moment,
and she sang some foolish strain of love and parting. When she
finished I knew I was in danger. When she left me, after an interval
of talk more or less idle, I recognized the truth--that I was in love.
Pray do not shake your head, and say that I have loved before. This is
no counterfeit Eros, but the god himself, in all the glory of his
divinity. It is not a subject to be laughed at, and if you do not
sympathize with me at this crisis of my life, then never more be
Pylades of mine. If she be all I take her to be--and I do not speak
without due knowledge--then my quest is ended, and I have found the
ideal woman of my dreams.
To revert a moment to the commonplace details of life. Did I tell you
I have here met with a sporting divine! Well, then, I have; and he is
one of the most delightful persons I have come into contact with
outside a novel.