F. Anstey was the pen name of Thomas Anstey Guthrie, a British comic novelist and humorist. He is best known for comic and fantastical fiction, including Vice Versa and The Brass Bottle.
F. Anstey
A Fallen Idol
1886. Reprinted in Humour and Fantasy, an omnibus edition of Anstey's popular fiction. John Murray, 1931.
Pseudonym of Thomas Anstey Guthrie.
It was a lovely spring afternoon, with a balmy warmth in the air. The foliage generally was still sparse, and only the smaller trees had burst into leaf; but here and there the curving chestnut branches ended in a pale knob, and the bare outline of an elm was softened by a delicate mist of green. They were outside the ring of the Botanic Gardens before Campion told his story of defeat, and having begun, he told it manfully, beginning with his threatened legacy and ended with his Academy reverses...
The young portrait painter is convinced that the reverses, financial and professional, will have ruined his marriage prospects, but for Sybil perfect love casteth out worldly concerns.
And so they walked on by the edge of the lake, where they had met once before, and all around them seemed in harmony with their own happiness. From the little suspension bridge came the lively clatter of feet over its planks, and the merry shouts of the ragged urchins sliding face downwards on its broad supports. Pleasure boats, propelled by various experimental methods, were splashing over the dark olive water, laced by amethyst ripples, and the waterfowl quacked and screamed with the delight of outwitting one another in the hunt for bread...For Campion, at least, Regent's Park was a paradise on that unforgettable afternoon, and everything in it was eloquent of the long happy summer that was at hand.