We now reached a graceful Renaissance building covered with blossoms; on each side of the door were two blue-breeched gondoliers smoking calamus. Theodormon hurried on, whispering: ‘That is where he lives. If you want to see Swinburne you had better make haste, as it is getting late, and I want you to inspect the Castalian spring.’
The walking became very rough just here; it was really climbing. Suddenly I became aware of dense smoke emerging with a rumbling sound from an overhanging rock.
‘I had no idea Parnassus was volcanic now,’ I remarked.
‘No more had we,’ said Theodormon; ‘it is quite a recent eruption due to the Celtic movement. The rock you see, however, is not a real rock, but a sham rock. Mr. George Moore has been turned out of the cave, and is still hovering about the entrance.’
Looming through the smoke, which hung like a veil of white muslin between us, I was able to trace the silhouette of that engaging countenance which Edouard Manet and others have immortalised. ‘Go away,’ he said: ‘I do not want to speak to you.’
‘Come, come, Mr. Moore,’ I rejoined, ‘will you not grant a few words to a really warm admirer?’—but he had faded away. Then a large hand came out of the cavern and handed me a piece of paper, and a deep voice with a slight brogue said: ‘If you see mi darlin’ Gosse give this to him.’ The paper contained these verses:—
Georgey Morgie, kidden and sly,
Kissed the girls and made them cry;
What the girls came out to say
George never heard, for he ran away.W. B. Y
We skirted the edge of a thick wood. A finger-post pointed to the Castalian spring, and a notice-board indicated Trespassers will be prosecuted. The lease to be disposed of. Apply to G. K. Chesterton.
Soon we came to an open space in which was situated a large, rather dilapidated marble tank. I noticed that the water did not reach further than the bathers’ stomachs. Theodormon anticipated my surprise. ‘Yes, we have had to depress the level of the water during the last few years out of compliment to some
of the bathers, and there have been a good many bathing fatalities of a very depressing description.’