Artists -- Fiction; English fiction -- 20th century; Jews -- England -- London -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
It required some persuasion to take Clowes down to Whitechapel. She
declared that she would stand by her friend whatever happened, but
that she did not wish to be personally mixed up in it. It would, she
said, make her in part responsible for whatever happened, and she did
not think she could bear it. However, Morrison explained that she only
wanted her there in case things were impossible, and that, if they
were not, she could make good her escape as soon as she liked. On that
Clowes consented and they journeyed to the East End.
The little Jewish servant said that Mr. Mendel was engaged. Would she
go up and see if he would soon be disengaged? She ran upstairs and
came down in a moment to ask if they would wait, and to their
surprise, darted past them, along the street, beckoned to them to
follow, and led them to Golda's kitchen. Golda bobbed to them, dusted
chairs for them to sit on, and, not knowing enough English to be able
to talk to them, went on with her ironing. When she had finished that,
she shyly produced an album and showed them all the photographs of
Mendel since he was a baby.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, in his studio Mendel was in agitated conversation with Mr.
Tilney Tysoe, who had arrived half an hour before, wagging his hands,
rolling his enormous eyes, almost demented by the lamentable news he
had to tell. Logan had left Oliver!
"When?" asked Mendel.
"A few days ago," said Tysoe. "The poor fellow came round to me one
night after dinner. You know, he often drops in in the evening. Such a
splendid fellow, so sincere, such a force! And his admiration for you
is very touching. He came in and raved like a madman and said terrible
things--oh, terrible things! He told me that I was a fool and did not
know a picture from my foot, and he denounced himself as a scoundrel
and a thief and a liar. He wanted me to destroy all the pictures I had
bought from him, and said they were not worth the stretchers of the
canvas they were painted on. . . . Oh! it was terrible, terrible! He
said that for years he had been pulling my leg, and had got such a
taste for it that he had begun to pull his own leg, and he went on to
say that his soul was rotten with lies; and then he broke into a
torrent of wild, splendid stuff that made my spine tingle. I assure
you, I could not contain my enthusiasm. . . . Oh! he is a splendid
fellow. . . . I can't remember it all very well, but he said that love
is impossible in the world as it is, and that everybody is living in
hate. It sounded most true--most true--though you know I adore my
wife. . . . He said that humanity has tried aristocracy and failed,
and it has tried democracy and failed. It has swung from one extreme
to the other and found satisfaction in neither, and now it must bend
the two extremes together so as to get the electric spark which can
illumine life, and also to create a circle in which life can be
contained. Of course, I haven't got it at all clear, but it was most
inspiring--most inspiring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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