utter a great cry at noon, and the men with trumpets shall cause their trumpets to blare, and the spearsmen clad in furs shall march to the North and thy silken guard shall take their place in the South, and summer shall leave the North and go to the South, and all the swallows shall rise and follow after.  And alone in thine inner courts shall no change be, for they shall lie narrowly along that line that parteth the seasons in sunder and divideth the North from the South, and thy long gardens shall lie under them.

“And in thy gardens shall spring always be, for spring lies ever at the marge of summer; and autumn also shall always tint thy gardens, for autumn always flares at winter’s edge, and those gardens shall lie apart between winter and summer.  And there shall be orchards in thy garden, too, with all the burden of autumn on their boughs and all the blossom of spring.

“Yea, I behold this palace, for we see future things; I see its white wall shine in the huge glare of midsummer, and the lizards lying along it motionless in the sun, and men asleep in the noonday, and the butterflies floating by, and birds of radiant plumage chasing marvellous moths; far off the forest and great orchids glorying there, and iridescent insects dancing round in the light.  I see the wall upon the other side; the snow has come upon the battlements, the icicles have fringed them like frozen beards, a wild wind blowing out of lonely places and crying to the cold fields as it blows has sent the snowdrifts higher than the buttresses; they that look out through windows on that side of thy palace see the wild geese flying low and all the birds of the winter, going by swift in packs beat low by the bitter wind, and the clouds above them are black, for it is midwinter there; while in thine other courts the fountains tinkle, falling on marble warmed by the fire of the summer sun.

“Such, O King of the Years, shall thy palace be, and its name shall be Erlathdronion, Earth’s Wonder; and thy wisdom shall bid thine architects build at once, that all may see what as yet the poets see only, and that prophecy be fulfilled.”

And when the poet ceased the Sultan spake, and said, as all men hearkened with bent heads: 

“It will be unnecessary for my builders to build this palace, Erlathdronion, Earth’s Wonder, for in hearing thee we have drunk already its pleasures.”

And the poet went forth from the Presence and dreamed a new thing.

. . . . .

A Narrow Escape

It was underground.

In that dank cavern down below Belgrave Square the walls were dripping.  But what was that to the magician?  It was secrecy that he needed, not dryness.  There he pondered upon the trend of events, shaped destinies and concocted magical brews.

For the last few years the serenity of his ponderings had been disturbed by the noise of the motor-bus; while to his keen ears there came the earthquake-rumble, far off, of the train in the tube, going down Sloane Street; and when he heard of the world above his head was not to its credit.