I have mentioned the fact that the Tutor is a poet as among his claims
to our attention. I must add that I do not think any the worse of him
for expressing his emotions and experiences in verse. For though rhyming
is often a bad sign in a young man, especially if he is already out of
his teens, there are those to whom it is as natural, one might almost
say as necessary, as it is to a young bird to fly. One does not care
to see barnyard fowls tumbling about in trying to use their wings. They
have a pair of good, stout drumsticks, and had better keep to them, for
the most part. But that feeling does not apply to young eagles, or even
to young swallows and sparrows. The Tutor is by no means one of those
ignorant, silly, conceited phrase-tinklers, who live on the music of
their own jingling syllables and the flattery of their foolish
friends. I think Number Five must appreciate him. He is sincere,
warmhearted,--his poetry shows that,--not in haste to be famous, and he
looks to me as if he only wanted love to steady him. With one of those
two young girls he ought certainly to be captivated, if he is not
already. Twice walking with the English Annex, I met him, and they were
so deeply absorbed in conversation they hardly noticed me. He has been
talking over the matter with Number Five, who is just the kind of person
for a confidante.
“I know I feel very lonely,” he was saying, “and I only wish I felt sure
that I could make another person happy. My life would be transfigured if
I could find such a one, whom I could love well enough to give my life
to her,--for her, if that were needful, and who felt an affinity for me,
if any one could.”
“And why not your English maiden?” said Number Five.
“What makes you think I care more for her than for her American friend?”
said the Tutor.
“Why, have n't I met you walking with her, and did n't you both seem
greatly interested in the subject you were discussing? I thought, of
course, it was something more or less sentimental that you were talking
about.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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