Randolph was glad to see Cope again, whom he had not met since the half
hour in Hortense Dunton's studio. He was also glad to secure, finally,
a close and leisurely look at Lemoyne. Lemoyne took the same occasion
for a close and leisurely look at Randolph. Each viewed the other with
dislike and distrust. Each spoke, so far as might be, to Cope--or
through him. Sing-Lo, who was prepared to smile, saw few smiles
elsewhere, and became sedate, even glum.
Randolph felt a physical distaste for Lemoyne. His dark eyes were too
liquid; his person was too plump; the bit of black bristle beneath his
nose was an offense; his aura----Yet who can say anything definite
about so indefinite a thing as an aura, save that one feels it and is
attracted or repelled by it? Lemoyne, on his side, developed an equal
distaste (or repugnance) for the "little gray man"--as he called
Randolph to himself and, later, even to Cope; though Randolph, speaking
justly, was exactly neither gray nor little. Lemoyne noted, too, the
early banishment of Randolph's eyeglasses, which disappeared as they
had disappeared once or twice before. He felt that Randolph was trying
to stay young rather late, and was showing himself inclined to "go"
with younger men longer than they would welcome him. Why didn't he
consort with people of his own age and kind? He was old; so why
couldn't he _be_ old?
The talk led--through Cope--to reminiscences of life in Winnebago.
Randolph presently began to feel Lemoyne as a variously yet equivocally
gifted young fellow--one so curiously endowed as to be of no use to his
own people, and of no avail for any career they were able to offer him.
A bundle of minor talents; a possible delight to casual acquaintances,
but an exasperation to his own household; an ornamental skimmer over
life's surfaces, when not a false fire for other young voyagers along
life's coasts. Yet Bertram Cope admired him and had become absorbed in
him. Their life in that northern town, with its fringe of
interests--educational, ecclesiastical, artistic and aquatic--had been
intimate, fused to a degree. Randolph began to realize, for the first
time, the difficulties in the way of "cultivating" Cope. Cope was a
field already occupied, a niche already filled.
While Randolph was gathering (through Cope) details of the life in
Winnebago, Lemoyne was gathering (through Cope) details of the life in
Churchton during the past autumn. He began to reconstruct that season:
the long range of social entertainments, the proposed fall excursions,
the sudden shifting of domicile. Randolph, it was clear, had tried to
appropriate Cope and to supplant (knowingly or unknowingly) Cope's
closest friend. Lemoyne became impatient over the fact that he was now
sitting at Randolph's table. However, if Randolph could help him to a
place and a salary, that would make some amends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account