Harold Macgrath

Hearts and Masks Harold Macgrath

It all depends upon the manner of your entrance to the Castle of Adventure. One does nothave to scale its beetling parapets or assault its scarps and frowning bastions; neither is oneobliged to force with clamor and blaring trumpets and glittering gorgets the drawbridge andportcullis. Rather the pathway lies through one of those many little doors, obscure, yet easilyaccessible, latchless and boltless, to which the average person gives no particular attention, andyet which invariably lead to the very heart of this Castle Delectable. The whimsical chatelaine ofthis enchanted keep is a shy goddess. Circumspection has no part in her affairs, nor caution, norpracticality; nor does her eye linger upon the dullard and the blunderer. Imagination solves thesecret riddle, and wit is the guide that leads the seeker through the winding, bewilderinglabyrinths. And there is something in being idle, too!If I had not gone idly into Mouquin's cellar for dinner that night, I should have missed themost engaging adventure that ever fell to my lot. It is second nature for me to be guided byimpulse rather than by reason; reason is always so square-toed and impulse is always so alluring. You will find that nearly all the great captains were and are creatures of impulse; nothingbrilliant is ever achieved by calculation. All this is not to say that I am a great captain; it isoffered only to inform you that I am often impulsive. A Times, four days old; and if I hadn't fallen upon it to pass the twenty-odd minutes betweenmy order and the service of it, I shouldn't have made the acquaintance of the police in that prettylittle suburb over in New Jersey; nor should I have met the enchanting Blue Domino; nor wouldfate have written Kismet. The clairvoyant never has any fun in this cycle; he has no surprises.