Mary Gresley, and An Editor's TalesTrollope, Anthony
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Mary Gresley, and An Editor's Tales
Trollope, Anthony
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
As everybody has not taken a Turkish bath in Jermyn Street, we will give
the shortest possible description of the position. We had entered of
course in the usual way, leaving our hat and our boots and our
“valuables” among the numerous respectable assistants who throng the
approaches; and as we had entered we had observed a stout, middle-aged
gentleman on the other side of the street, clad in vestments somewhat
the worse for wear, and to our eyes particularly noticeable by reason of
the tattered condition of his gloves. A well-to-do man may have no
gloves, or may simply carry in his hands those which appertain to him
rather as a thing of custom than for any use for which he requires them.
But a tattered glove, worn on the hand, is to our eyes the surest sign
of a futile attempt at outer respectability. It is melancholy to us
beyond expression. Our brother editors, we do not doubt, are acquainted
with the tattered glove, and have known the sadness which it produces.
If there be an editor whose heart has not been softened by the feminine
tattered glove, that editor is not our brother. In this instance the
tattered glove was worn by a man; and though the usual indication of
poor circumstances was conveyed, there was nevertheless something jaunty
in the gentleman’s step which preserved him from the desecration of
pity. We barely saw him, but still were thinking of him as we passed
into the building with the oriental letters on it, and took off our
boots, and pulled out our watch and purse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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