Page:The cream of the jest; a comedy of evasions (IA creamofjestcomed00caberich).pdf/163

 I

Economic Considerations of Piety

As has been said, Kennaston read much curious matter in his dead uncle's library

But most books—even Felix Kennaston's own little books—did not seem now to be affairs of heavy moment. Once abed, clasping his gleaming broken bit of metal, and the truthful history of all that had ever happened was, instead, Kennaston's library. It was not his to choose from what volume or on which page thereof he would read; accident, as it seemed, decided that; but the chance-opened page lay unblurred before him, and he saw it with a clarity denied to other men of his generation.

Kennaston stood by the couch of Tiberius Cæsar as he lay ill at Capreæ. Beside him hung a memorable painting, by Parrhasius, which repre