It all depends upon the manner of your entrance to the Castle of
Adventure. One does not have to scale its beetling parapets or assault
its scarps and frowning bastions; neither is one obliged to force with
clamor and blaring trumpets and glittering gorgets the drawbridge and
portcullis. Rather the pathway lies through one of those many little
doors, obscure, yet easily accessible, latchless and boltless, to which
the average person gives no particular attention, and yet which
invariably lead to the very heart of this Castle Delectable. The
whimsical chatelaine of this enchanted keep is a shy goddess.
Circumspection has no part in her affairs, nor caution, nor
practicality; nor does her eye linger upon the dullard and the
blunderer. Imagination solves the secret riddle, and wit is the guide
that leads the seeker through the winding, bewildering labyrinths.
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 the most engaging adventure that ever fell to my
lot. It is second nature for me to be guided by impulse 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; nothing brilliant is ever achieved by
calculation. All this is not to say that I am a great captain; it is
offered 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 between my order and the service of it, I shouldn't
have made the acquaintance of the police in that pretty little suburb
over in New Jersey; nor should I have met the enchanting Blue Domino;
nor would fate have written Kismet. The clairvoyant never has any fun
in this cycle; he has no surprises.
I had been away from New York for several weeks, and had returned only
that afternoon. Thus, the spirit of unrest acquired by travel was
still upon me. It was nearing holiday week, and those congenial
friends I might have called upon, to while away the evening, were
either busily occupied with shopping or were out of town; and I
determined not to go to the club and be bored by some indifferent
billiard player. I would dine quietly, listen to some light music, and
then go to the theater. I was searching the theatrical amusements,
when the society column indifferently attacked my eye. I do not know
why it is, but I have a wholesome contempt for the so-called society
columns of the daily newspaper in New York. Mayhap, it is because I do
not belong.