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Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
151
To
us,
for
whom
so
quickly
“time
doth
transfix
the
flourish
set
on
youth,”
there
is
something
strange,
even
a
trifle
ludicrous,
in
the
thought
that
Zeus,
after
all
these
years,
is
still
at
the
beck
and
call
of
his
passions.
And
it
seems
anyhow
lamentable
that
he
has
not
yet
gained
self-confidence
enough
to
appear
in
his
own
person
to
the
lady
of
his
choice,
and
is
still
at
pains
to
transform
himself
into
whatever
object
he
deems
likeliest
to
please
her.
To
Clio,
suddenly
from
Olympus,
he
flashed
down
in
the
semblance
of
Kinglake’s
“Invasion
of
the
Crimea”
(four
vols.,
large
8vo,
half-calf).
She
saw
through
his
disguise
immediately,
and,
with
great
courage
and
independence,
bade
him
begone.
Rebuffed,
he
was
not
deflected.
Indeed
it
would
seem
that
Clio’s
high
spirit
did
but
sharpen
his
desire.
Hardly
a
day
passed
but
he
appeared
in
what
he
hoped
would
be
the
irresistible
form--a
recently
discovered
fragment
of
Polybius,
an
advance
copy
of
the
forthcoming
issue
of
“The
Historical
Review,”
the
note-book
of
Professor
Carl
Voertschlaffen...
One
day,
all-prying
Hermes
told
him
of
Clio’s
secret
addiction
to
novel-reading.
Thenceforth,
year
in,
year
out,
it
was
in
the
form
of
fiction
that
Zeus
wooed
her.
The
sole
result
was
that
she
grew
sick
of
the
sight
of
novels,
and
found
a
perverse
pleasure
in
reading
history.
These
dry
details
of
what
had
actually
happened
were
a
relief,
she
told
herself,
from
all
that
make-believe.
One
Sunday
afternoon--the
day
before
that
very
Monday
on
which
this
narrative
opens--it
occurred
to
her
how
fine
a
thing
history
might
be
if
the
historian
had
the
novelist’s
privileges.
Suppose
he
could
be
present
at
every
scene
which
he
was
going
to
describe,
a
presence
invisible
and
inevitable,
and
equipped
with
power
to
see
into
the
breasts
of
all
the
persons
whose
actions
he
set
himself
to
watch...
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