. Facts and fancies about Java . ting sunbeams 34 THE TOWN pierce it. And the tree tops, far off andindistinct, seem to rise airily over hollowsof blue shade. Not far from the Koningsplein there is ano-ther square, its very opposite in aspect andcharacter—the idyllic Dukes Park—very sha-dowy, fragrant, and green. One walks in itas in a poets dream. All around there is themultitudinous budding and blossoming ofmany-coloured flowers, a play of transparentbamboo-shadows that flit and shift oversmooth grassplot and shell-strewn path, aceaseless alternation of glooms and amidst tall dar
. Facts and fancies about Java . ting sunbeams 34 THE TOWN pierce it. And the tree tops, far off andindistinct, seem to rise airily over hollowsof blue shade. Not far from the Koningsplein there is ano-ther square, its very opposite in aspect andcharacter—the idyllic Dukes Park—very sha-dowy, fragrant, and green. One walks in itas in a poets dream. All around there is themultitudinous budding and blossoming ofmany-coloured flowers, a play of transparentbamboo-shadows that flit and shift oversmooth grassplot and shell-strewn path, aceaseless alternation of glooms and amidst tall dark trees, whose topmostbranches break out into a flame of blossom,there stands a marble mansion, temple-likein its severe grace of Doric columns andcrowning frontispiece. A bend of the riverenfolds the pleasance, murmuring. The Park of the Duke One wonders—was he at all like Olivias princely suitor? andwere these glades ever haunted by someViola-like maiden, wooing him all-unsuspec-tedly from his forlorn allegiance? Surely,. THE TOWN 35 yonder starry orange-grove were a meet scenefor the final recognition:— Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times,Thou never wouldst love woman like to me .. The irony of facts has willed it otherwise. A duke it was, sure enough, that stood spon-sor to the spot. But as (according to Frenchauthorities) there are fagots and fagots, evenso there are Dukes and Dukes—and vastlymore points of difference than of resemblancebetween Violas gentle prince, and the thun-derous old Lord of Saxen-Weimar, to whoserumbhng EJreuzdonnerwetters and Himmels—Sakraments this abode of romance re-echoedsome fifty years ago. A distant relative tothe King,of the Netherlands, he was indeb-ted to his Royal kinsmans sense of familyduty for these snug quarters, a very consi-derable income (from the National Treasury)and the post of an Army Commander, whichupheld the prince in the pensioner. His tasteswere few and simple, and saving the one de-light of his soul, a
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