Page:The cream of the jest; a comedy of evasions (IA creamofjestcomed00caberich).pdf/210

 similar fashion, it is here necessary to the Author's scheme that man must simply go on striving to gain a little money, food, and sleep, a trinket or two, some moments of laughter, and at the last a decent bed to die in. For it may well be that man's allotted part calls for just these actions, to round out the drama artistically. Yes; it is quite conceivable that, much as I shaped events at Storisende, so here the Author aims toward making an æsthetic masterpiece of His puppet-play as a whole, rather than at ending everything with a transformation scene such as, when we were younger, used so satisfactorily to close ''The Black Crook and The Devil's Auction''. For it may well be that the Author has, after all, more in common with Æschylus, say, than with Mr. Charles H. Yale So I must train my mind to be contented with appearances, whether they be true or not—and reserving always a permissible preference for pleasant delusions. Being mortal, I am able to contrive no thriftier bargain."

"Being mortal," I amended, "we pick our recreations to suit our tastes. Now I, for instance*