It would be monstrous to conceive of
him in such situations, except for the purpose of showing that he had
very much in his outward habit that would readily attract such a notice.
In the same light we are to regard some illustrations which J. Hill
Burton has given in "The Book-Hunter" of similar features in his
character, and which I take the liberty of introducing here; for,
although they have appeared in "Blackwood," and more lately in a
book-form, they are still unpublished to many of my readers.
Thus, we have him pictured to us as he appeared at a dinner, "whereto he
was seduced by the false pretence that he would there meet with one who
entertained novel and anarchical views regarding the 'Golden Ass' of
Apuleius. The festivities of the afternoon are far on, when a commotion
is heard in the hall, as if some dog or other stray animal had forced
its way in. The instinct of a friendly guest tells him of the arrival;
he opens the door, and fetches in the little stranger. What can it be? A
street-boy of some sort? His costume, in fact, is a boy's duffle
great-coat, very threadbare, with a hole in it, and buttoned tight to
the chin, where it meets the fragments of a party-colored belcher
handkerchief; on his feet are list shoes, covered with snow, for it is a
stormy winter night; and the trousers,--some one suggests that they are
inner linen garments blackened with writing-ink, but that Papaverius
never would have been at the trouble so to disguise them.
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