THE DOUBLE ALIBI 159 



change of character we naturally saw each other 

 less, but we were still friendly. I went up to 

 town to scribble ; Allen stayed on at Oxford. 

 One day I chanced to go into Blocksby's rooms ; 

 it was a Friday, I remember — there was to be a 

 great sale on the Monday. There I met Allen in 

 ecstasies over one of the books displayed in the 

 little side room on the right hand of the sale-room. 

 He had taken out of a glass case and was gloating 

 over a book which, it seems, had long been the 

 Blue Rose of his fancy as a collector. He was 

 crazed about Longepierre, the old French amateur, 

 whose volumes, you may remember, were always 

 bound in blue morocco, and tooled, on the centre 

 and at the corners, with his badge, the Golden 

 Fleece. Now the tome which so fascinated Allen 

 was a Theocritus, published at Rome by Caliergus 

 — a Theocritus on blue paper, if you please, 

 bound in Longepierre's morocco livery, doubU 

 with red morocco, and, oh ecstasy ! with a copy 

 of Longepierre's version of one Idyll on the flyleif, 

 signed with the translator's initials, and headed 

 ' d. Mon Roy! It is known to the curious that 



