He
brought to me in his hand something which glittered. It was an exquisite
diamond beetle.
--If you could get that to her,--he said,--they tell me that ladies
sometimes wear them in their hair. If they are out of fashion, she can
keep it till after they're married, and then perhaps after a while there
may be--you know--you know what I mean--there may be larvae, that 's what
I 'm thinking there may be, and they 'll like to look at it.
--As he got out the word larvae, a faint sense of the ridiculous seemed
to take hold of the Scarabee, and for the first and only time during my
acquaintance with him a slight attempt at a smile showed itself on his
features. It was barely perceptible and gone almost as soon as seen, yet
I am pleased to put it on record that on one occasion at least in his
life the Scarabee smiled.
The old Master keeps adding notes and reflections and new suggestions to
his interleaved volume, but I doubt if he ever gives them to the public.
The study he has proposed to himself does not grow easier the longer it
is pursued. The whole Order of Things can hardly be completely
unravelled in any single person's lifetime, and I suspect he will have to
adjourn the final stage of his investigations to that more luminous realm
where the Landlady hopes to rejoin the company of boarders who are
nevermore to meet around her cheerful and well-ordered table.
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