The shabby volume
has become a sort of Potter's Field where I bury my literary intentions,
good and bad, without any belief in their final resurrection.
A STAGE DIRECTION: _exit time; enter Eternity--with a soliloquy._
ASIDES
TOM FOLIO
IN my early Boston days a gentle soul was often to be met with about
town, furtively haunting old book-shops and dusty editorial rooms, a
man of ingratiating simplicity of manner, who always spoke in a low,
hesitating voice, with a note of refinement in it. He was a devout
worshiper of Elia, and wrote pleasant discursive essays smacking
somewhat of his master's flavor--suggesting rather than imitating
it--which he signed "Tom Folio." I forget how he glided into my
acquaintanceship; doubtless in some way too shy and elusive for
remembrance. I never knew him intimately, perhaps no one did, but the
intercourse between us was most cordial, and our chance meetings and
bookish chats extended over a space of a dozen years.
Tom Folio--I cling to the winning pseudonym--was sparely built and under
medium height, or maybe a slight droop of the shoulders made it seem so,
with a fragile look about him and an aspect of youth that was not his.
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