Meetings with King 



I never can tell why, except that it 

 was from a princely impulse which 

 he must often have indulged towards 

 others no more worthy its effect than 

 I. He had much of the Arabian 

 Nights in him, and liked to shine in 

 a surprising munificence, if he could 

 choose its object ; and I suppose he 

 enjoyed launching such a challenge 

 at my imagination. If he might no 

 longer write poet he could live poet, 

 and now and again do a thing that 

 was noble literature. He was not 

 rich, as rich men go, and that was 

 why he could afford pleasures that 

 rich men, as they go, cannot or will 

 not permit themselves. His generos- 

 ity was not merely in gifts that could 

 not wax poor through any after un- 

 kindness of his, but in recognitions 

 that go farther yet with one in the 

 numerous solitude where an author is 

 always apt to find himself. His rec- 

 ognition was more than a nod ; it 

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