So, it's a matter of intention (wicked or virtuous, clear or obscure), and of faith (good or bad) which determine the proper, and improper, use of metaphor and its extension allegory--it being granted that the similarity of metaphor to its object is not, and is not intended to be, exact, but rather, in a poetic or metaphysical sense, evocative.

Now then, off to bridge with my millionairesses. I hope to arrive a little early today, and so to secure a place at a table (I was 13th man out last week, and skulked off dejectedly to check my mail at Care-a-Van, rather than sit drooling and unfed at the feast).