Page:In the dozy hours, and other papers.djvu/171

 Rh weird conceits and high-pacing rhymes are thoughtfully labeled pastels, so as to give us a clue to their otherwise impenetrable obscurity. Sullen seas, and wan twilights, and dim garden paths, relieved with ghostly lilies, and white-armed women of dubious decorum, are the chief ingredients of these poetic novelties; but here is one, picked up by chance, which reads like a genial conundrum:—

Now, if that be a pastel, and Mr. Gosse's reviews are pastels, and M. Bourget's stories are pastels, and Maurice de Guérin's "Centaur" is a pastel, and Mr. Brander Matthews' realistic sketches are pastels, and Ephraïm Mikhaël's allegories are pastels, I should like to be told, by some one who knows, just where the limits of the term is set.