PAGEANTRY OF EVENING

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11423, 20 January 1923, Page 13

PAGEANTRY OF EVENING

AN IDYLL. I dreamt of gold. Gold! Gold! Glittering, twinkling fald! Yet it was not the gold of which lutus is god, but the matchless, magical gold of the evening sun, which was slowly sinking out of sight. Into my soul theri came the peace of calm evening as 1 beheld the haunting, hesitant, beauties of the brilliant sunset. Gradually thd sun, like a host of golden fire, faded and fell in the west; and following the golden lustre of its luxurious lingerirg, the surrounding clouds and sky became suffused with crimson, which changed slowly first to purpureal tints, then to violet, then to dusky grey. During these changes of colour, the clouds assumed varied fantastic shapes. Sometimes phantom cities passed before my vision; sometimes strange headlands and mountain peaks. Then came lofty towers and castles, and halls of mystic mansionry, across whose amethystine floors fays and fairies danced.

Sometimes dragonish dream-pictures displaced eaoh other in the clouds, and prancing coursers, ridden by mailed knights, passed by; chariots hurried to and fro in tho gathering darkness, and kingly lions crcuched and crept through visioned forests and jungle shades. Then, as I watched the west, night came quiokly on and cloaked from my ▼iew evening's perfect pageantry; ani one by one black night displayed her chamond-jewels—the sparkling stars. —LAURA JEAN VICTORY.