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Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
52
At
dawn
they
fly
away,
none
knows
whither.
On
the
eve
of
the
death
of
any
other
Tanville-Tankerton,
comes
(no
matter
what
be
the
time
of
year)
a
cuckoo.
It
stays
for
an
hour,
cooing,
then
flies
away,
none
knows
whither.
Whenever
this
portent
occurs,
my
steward
telegraphs
to
me,
that
I,
as
head
of
the
family,
be
not
unsteeled
against
the
shock
of
a
bereavement,
and
that
my
authority
be
sooner
given
for
the
unsealing
and
garnishing
of
the
family-vault.
Not
every
forefather
of
mine
rests
quiet
beneath
his
escutcheoned
marble.
There
are
they
who
revisit,
in
their
wrath
or
their
remorse,
the
places
wherein
erst
they
suffered
or
wrought
evil.
There
is
one
who,
every
Halloween,
flits
into
the
dining-hall,
and
hovers
before
the
portrait
which
Hans
Holbein
made
of
him,
and
flings
his
diaphanous
grey
form
against
the
canvas,
hoping,
maybe,
to
catch
from
it
the
fiery
flesh-tints
and
the
solid
limbs
that
were
his,
and
so
to
be
re-incarnate.
He
flies
against
the
painting,
only
to
find
himself
t’other
side
of
the
wall
it
hangs
on.
There
are
five
ghosts
permanently
residing
in
the
right
wing
of
the
house,
two
in
the
left,
and
eleven
in
the
park.
But
all
are
quite
noiseless
and
quite
harmless.
My
servants,
when
they
meet
them
in
the
corridors
or
on
the
stairs,
stand
aside
to
let
them
pass,
thus
paying
them
the
respect
due
to
guests
of
mine;
but
not
even
the
rawest
housemaid
ever
screams
or
flees
at
sight
of
them.
I,
their
host,
often
waylay
them
and
try
to
commune
with
them;
but
always
they
glide
past
me.
And
how
gracefully
they
glide,
these
ghosts!
It
is
a
pleasure
to
watch
them.
It
is
a
lesson
in
deportment.
May
they
never
be
laid!
Of
all
my
household-pets,
they
are
the
dearest
to
me.
I
am
Duke
of
Strathsporran
and
Cairngorm,
Marquis
of
Sorby,
and
Earl
Cairngorm,
in
the
Peerage
of
Scotland.
In
the
glens
of
the
hills
about
Strathsporran
are
many
noble
and
nimble
stags.
But
I
have
never
set
foot
in
my
house
there,
for
it
is
carpeted
throughout
with
the
tartan
of
my
clan.
You
seem
to
like
tartan.
What
tartan
is
it
you
are
wearing?”
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
