OUR WONDERFUL SELVES “_Of making many books there is no end:_ _and much study is a weariness of the flesh._” ECCLESIASTES XII, 12. OUR WONDERFUL SELVES BY ROLAND PERTWEE [Illustration] NEW YORK ALFRED • A • KNOPF MCMXIX COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA _To_ _AVICE_ CONTENTS PART I A QUESTION MARK IN SUBURBIA 11 PART II THE PURPLE PATCH 61 PART III PARIS 115 PART IV THE PEN AND THE BOARDS 173 PART V EVE 199 PART VI “HE TRAVELS FASTEST— 241 PART VII —WHO TRAVELS ALONE” 289 PART VIII THE LEAP 321 PART I A QUESTION MARK IN SUBURBIA I Wynne Rendall was a seven months’ child; the fact is significant of a personality seeking premature prominence upon this planet. He spent the first weeks of his infancy wrapped in cotton wool and placed in a basket as near the fire as safety allowed. He scaled precisely two pounds fifteen ounces, and the doctor, who manipulated the weights and was interested in mathematics, placed two pounds fifteen ounces over seven months and shook his head forebodingly at the result. “If he lives he will be a sickly child, nurse.” This opinion the nurse heartily endorsed, and added, in tribute to the kindliness of her disposition: “Poor little thing!” Mrs. Rendall did not show great concern at the untimely arrival of her offspring. She accepted it, as she accepted all things, with phlegmatical calm. A great deal was required to still Mrs. Rendall’s emotions, so much, in fact, that it was not within the recollection of any of her intimates that they ever had been stirred. It did not occur to her that the birth of a child, mature or premature, was a matter of moment. If it lived, well and good, and the best must be done for it. If it died, the occurrence must be regarded as sad and an occasion for shedding a given number of tears. It was clearly useless to foreshadow either event, since one was as likely as the other and could be as readily treated with when the time arose.