THE VISIONARY GLEAM





CHAPTER I.

"Youth is lifted on Wings of his strong hope and soaring valour;
for his thoughts are above riches."--PINDAR.


Oxford on a clear, still evening of June: silver reaches of Isis and
Cher; meadows pied with moon daisies and clover, and the rose madder
bloom of ripe grasses; the trill of unseen birds tuning up for evensong;
the passing and repassing of boats and canoes and punts, gay with
cushions and summer frocks; all bathed in the level radiance that steals
over earth like a presence in the last hours of a summer day....

Oxford--shrine of the oldest creeds and the newest fads--given over, for
one hilarious week, to the yearly invasion of mothers and sisters and
cousins, and girls that were neither; especially girls that were
neither....

Two of the punts, clearly containing one party, kept close enough
together for the occupants to exchange sallies of wit, or any blissful
foolishness in keeping with the blissfully foolish mood of a moonlight
picnic up the river in 'Commem.'