Chelsea Night Encounter

He was a serious‐minded lad when he got his first appointment as an assistant in his local public library, and coming from a bookish family he revelled in the opportunity that stretched out before him on the seemingly endless shelves. Duly he was fortunate in finding seniors who were prepared to give him bookish guidance, and soon he was browsing in literature embodying the fascinating speculations of contemporary writers of enlightened thought such as Thomas Henry Huxley, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Herbert Spencer; and he was encouraged to make excursions into Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ernest Dowson and others of the then popular poets. The scientists kept him serious and thoughtful, the poets made him a romantic. He had little time for the reading of fiction, the best of which would have served to widen his rather limited social horizon. He attended lectures, and duly he lectured others. He was qualifying for a Grammarian's Funeral.