54
ETHEL CHURCHILL.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FÊTE.
Not to the present is our hour confined,
The great and shadowy future is assigned
To be the glorious empire of the mind.
The past was once the future and it wrought
In the high presence of on-looking thought;
All that we have, was by its efforts brought.
To-day creates to-morrow, and the tree
Of good or ill grows in past hours, what we
Make for the future—certain is to be.
The superb banquet that had been laid out for the queen, was over. For once opinion had been unanimous even about an act of Sir Robert's. The royal party had dined in the greenhouse, the coup d'œil of which was as striking as it was new. Vast stands of
