Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source:
http://books.google.com/books?id=sYwnAAAAMAAJ
(New York Public Library)
2. Table of Contents added by Transcriber.
A Statue of charity with helpless childhood gathered to the amplebosom, and helpless age sheltered by the ample veil behind it, acrimson curtain concealing an angle in the stairway. In front a crowdstreaming slackly, yet steadily, up the steps; a crowd which brokeinto little eddies of greeting, little backwaters of gossip, whilstthe waves from the rear, taking advantage of the pause, rippled higherand higher. A crowd complaining indifferently of the crush, the heat,the impossibility of being in two places at once--not with referenceto the hay-sweet meadows and copses where the nightingales weresinging to the moon that summer's night, but in regard to some otherhot staircase, where society was due some time ere the sun rose.
To the man who, in a comfortable niche behind the statue, sate removedfrom the pressure of the current, the scene was framed by Charity'smantle. Perhaps it needed the setting; a crowd generally does whetherit be in the old Kent Road or Grosvenor Square.
"The Big Bear! I beg your pardon, Mr. Lockhart. Why aren't you inRome, and is there room for me on that peaceful seat?"
"There is always room for Golden Locks beside the Big Bear--and now,Lady Maud, why should I be in Rome at this season of the year?"
"Because, being an artist, you should not mind malaria. Besides, whatis malaria to this insufferable heat and crush? Doesn't it strike youthat our hostess thinks getting into society, and getting soc