King — " The Frolic and the 

 Gentle " 



FROM the first he had the grace 

 to put me on close terms with 

 him, although we seldom met when 

 he had not just come from a distant 

 region or was departing for some 

 other point as far. In this wise, I 

 could not free myself from the illu- 

 sion that he was a kind of Martian — 

 a planetary visitor, of a texture dif- 

 fering from that of ordinary Earth- 

 dwellers. It seemed quite natural 

 that he should map out the globe, 

 and bore through it to see of what 

 it was made. Now that he is gone, 

 I am still looking for his casual 

 return. 



There was one occasion which I 

 did not share with others of his pres- 



