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Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
230
XIX
And
now
he
had
passed
under
the
little
arch
between
the
eighth
and
the
ninth
Emperor,
rounded
the
Sheldonian,
and
been
lost
to
sight
of
Katie,
whom,
as
he
was
equally
glad
and
sorry
he
had
kissed
her,
he
was
able
to
dismiss
from
his
mind.
In
the
quadrangle
of
the
Old
Schools
he
glanced
round
at
the
familiar
labels,
blue
and
gold,
over
the
iron-studded
doors,--Schola
Theologiae
et
Antiquae
Philosophiae;
Museum
Arundelianum;
Schola
Musicae.
And
Bibliotheca
Bodleiana--he
paused
there,
to
feel
for
the
last
time
the
vague
thrill
he
had
always
felt
at
sight
of
the
small
and
devious
portal
that
had
lured
to
itself,
and
would
always
lure,
so
many
scholars
from
the
ends
of
the
earth,
scholars
famous
and
scholars
obscure,
scholars
polyglot
and
of
the
most
diverse
bents,
but
none
of
them
not
stirred
in
heart
somewhat
on
the
found
threshold
of
the
treasure-house.
“How
deep,
how
perfect,
the
effect
made
here
by
refusal
to
make
any
effect
whatsoever!”
thought
the
Duke.
Perhaps,
after
all...
but
no:
one
could
lay
down
no
general
rule.
He
flung
his
mantle
a
little
wider
from
his
breast,
and
proceeded
into
Radcliffe
Square.
Another
farewell
look
he
gave
to
the
old
vast
horse-chestnut
that
is
called
Bishop
Heber’s
tree.
Certainly,
no:
there
was
no
general
rule.
With
its
towering
and
bulging
masses
of
verdure
tricked
out
all
over
in
their
annual
finery
of
catkins,
Bishop
Heber’s
tree
stood
for
the
very
type
of
ingenuous
ostentation.
And
who
should
dare
cavil?
who
not
be
gladdened?
Yet
awful,
more
than
gladdening,
was
the
effect
that
the
tree
made
to-day.
Strangely
pale
was
the
verdure
against
the
black
sky;
and
the
multitudinous
catkins
had
a
look
almost
ghostly.
The
Duke
remembered
the
legend
that
every
one
of
these
fair
white
spires
of
blossom
is
the
spirit
of
some
dead
man
who,
having
loved
Oxford
much
and
well,
is
suffered
thus
to
revisit
her,
for
a
brief
while,
year
by
year.
And
it
pleased
him
to
doubt
not
that
on
one
of
the
topmost
branches,
next
Spring,
his
own
spirit
would
be.
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