The Troubadour

At a lively salon the narrator observes a cultured stranger, Mr. Fayliss, whose haunting song cycle evokes the memories and despair of the last survivors of a vanished, highly developed civilization. Guests listen with restrained admiration and debate the songs' cultural origins while Fayliss explains he adapts masterpieces of past peoples for modern audiences. His polished manner and apparent ease intrigue the crowd, and after the performance a sudden, inexplicable physical detail—a swift tail that returns a blown-off hat—undercuts the evening's cosmopolitan confidence and leaves an atmosphere of unease and mystery.