Description
“Happy to meet you once more, _Mr. Punch_,” responded old Edax Rerum,turning from what the poet calls his ‘Optic Tube’ to welcome hissprightly visitor. “Awfully good of you to turn up just now. LikeTrue THOMAS’s _Teufelsdröckh_, ‘I am alone with the Stars,’ and wasbeginning to feel just a little bit lonely.””With the Voces Stellarum to keep you company? You surprise me,”said _Mr. Punch_. “But what is all this?” he added, pointing withaccustomed eye to a pile of MS. at TIME’s elbow.If so old a stager as Father TIME _can_ blush, he certainly did so onthis occasion.”Fact is, _Mr. Punch_,” he rejoined, “I, like younger and shall Isay lesser Celebrities, have been writing my ‘Reminiscences.’ Ha ha!_The Chronicles of Chronos_ in 6,000 volumes or so–up to now. Thisis a small portion of my _Magnum Opus_. Can you recommend me to apublisher?””Ask my friend Archdeacon FARRAR,” responded the Sage, drily. “Whata work! And what a sensation! TALLEYRAND’s long-talked-of ‘Memoirs’not in it! Do you know, my dear TIME, I think you had better postponethe publication–for an æon or so at least. _Your Magnum Opus_ mightbecome a _Scandalum Magnatum_.””Ah, perhaps so,” replied TIME, with a sigh.
