Meanwhile, for the first part of the afternoon one must put up with
the Galleon family. Had Peter been sufficiently calm and sensible these
appendages to a great author would have been worth his attention. Behold
them in relation to “Henry Lessingham,” soaked in the works, bearing
on their backs the whole Edition de Luxe, decking themselves with
the little odds and ends of literary finery that they had picked up,
bursting with the good-nature of assured self-consequence--harmless,
foolish, comfortable. Mrs. Galleon was massive with a large flat face
that jumped suddenly into expression when one least expected it. There
was a great deal of silk about her, much leisurely movement and her
tactics were silence and a slow, significant smile--these she always
contributed to any conversation that was really beyond her. Had she not,
during many years of her life, been married to a genius she would have
been an intensely slow-moving but adequate housekeeper--as it was, her
size and her silence enabled her to keep her place at many literary
dinners. Peter, watching her, was consumed with wonder that Henry
Galleon could ever have married her and understood that Bobby was the
child of both his parents. Bobby had a brother and sister--Percival and
Millicent. Percival was twenty-five and had written two novels that were
considered promising by those who did not know that he was the son of
his father. He was slim and dark with a black thread of a moustache
and rather fine white fingers. His clothes were very well cut but his
appearance was a little too elaborately simple. His sister, a girl of
about eighteen, was slim and dark also; she had the eager appearance of
one who has heard just enough to make her very anxious to hear a great
deal more.
One felt that she did not want to miss anything, but probably her
determination to be her father's daughter would prevent her from
becoming very valuable or intelligent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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