Preface

THE BOOK-BILLS OF NARCISSUS

an ACCOUNT RENDERED BY RICHARD LE GALLIENNE

WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY ROBERT FOWLER

1895

TABLE OF CHAPTERS

I. INTRODUCTORY II. STILL INTRODUCTORY, BUT THIS TIME OF A GREATER THAN THE WRITER III. IN WHICH NARCISSUS OPENS HIS'GLADSTONE'IV. ACCOUNTS RENDERED V. AN IDYLL OF ALICE SUNSHINE, WHICH REALLY BELONGS TO THE LAST CHAPTER VI. THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS VII. THE CHILDREN OF APOLLO VIII. GEORGE MUNCASTER IX. THAT THIRTEENTH MAID X.'IN VISHNU-LAND WHAT AVATAR?'

TO MILDRED

Always thy book, too late acknowledged thine,

Now when thine eyes no earthly page may read;

Blinded with death, or blinded with the shine

Of love's own lore celestial. Small need,

Forsooth, for thee to read my earthly line,

That on immortal flowers of fancy feed;

What should my angel do to stoop to mine,

Flowers of decay of no immortal seed.

Yet, love, if in thy lofty dwelling-place,

Higher than notes of any soaring bird,

Beyond the beam of any solar light,

A song of earth may scale the awful height,

And at thy heavenly window find thy face—

know my voice shall never fall unheard.

December 6th, 1894.

NOTE.— This third edition has been revised, and Chapter V. is entirely new.