Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/310

 gentle leaves whispering over his head, and the finest girl in the land by his side drawing a fanciful picture of "Alf" on the gravel with the point of her sunshade, he was not in the mood for mockery. The world was so full of a number of things, that it seemed but right and decent to have these large and generous notions. Let every atom and molecule that made up the pageant of human experience overflow in love and admiration of its neighbor. He was a dud himself, his dwelling-place was en parterre, yet as heaven was above him and She was at his elbow, there was no denying that the little man who had just passed out of sight had laid hold somehow of a divine idea.

Yes, the ticket for the future was Universal Love and Admiration, at any rate for the heirs of the good God. Not a doubt that! He didn't pretend to be a philosopher, or a poet, but even he could see that yonder little scug in the brown pot hat was a big proposition.

"I wonder," he mused aloud, "how the little bounder came to think of that?"

"He says it came to him in his sleep." And the artist at his elbow gave one final masterful curl to the amazing trousers of the latest benefactor of the human species.