The best short stories of 1921, and the yearbook of the American short story
General
The best short stories of 1921, and the yearbook of the American short story
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories -- 20th century -- Bibliography; Short stories -- 20th century -- Indexes; Short stories, American
"Yes, at the moving-pictures."
But he began to talk rapidly and explain. I could see that the gentleman
and his wife were interested and quite puzzled. It would seem that the
place he described--Naples, I think it was--resembled broadly the place
they knew, but with so many differences of detail as to be almost
unrecognizable. It was, as Mrs. W. said afterward, "like a city
perceived in a dream--all the topsy-turvydom, all the mingling of
fantasy and reality."
After outbursts of this kind, he was generally ill--at least he kept his
bed and slept much. As a consequence, he was often away from the office;
and whenever I thought of him in those days, I used to wonder how he
managed to keep his employment.
One foggy evening in January, about eight o'clock, I happened to be
walking with Barber in the West End. We passed before a concert hall,
brilliantly lighted, with a great crowd of people gathered about the
doors, and I read on a poster that a concert of classical music was
forward at which certain renowned artists were to appear. I really
cannot give any sort of reason why I took it into my head to go in. I am
rather fond of music, even of the kind which requires a distinct
intellectual effort; but I was not anxious to hear music that night, and
in any case, Barber was about the last man in the world I should have
chosen to hear it with. When I proposed that we should take tickets, he
strongly objected.
"Just look me over," he said. "I ain't done anything to you that you
want to take my life, have I? I know the kind of merry-go-round that
goes on in there, and I'm not having any."
I suppose it was his opposition which made me stick to the project, for
I could not genuinely have cared very much, and there was nothing to be
gained by dragging Barber to a concert against his will. Finally, seeing
I was determined, he yielded, though most ungraciously.
"It'll be the chance of a lifetime for an hour's nap," he said as we
took our seats, "if they only keep the trombone quiet."
I repeat his trivial sayings to show how little there was about him in
manner or speech to prepare me for what followed.
I remember that the first number on the programme was Beethoven's
Seventh Symphony. This work, as is well known, is rather long, and so,
at the end of the third movement, I turned and looked at Barber to see
if he was asleep. But his eyes were wide open, feverish, almost glaring;
he was twining and untwining his fingers and muttering excitedly.
Throughout the fourth movement he continued to talk incoherently.
"Shut up!" I whispered fiercely. "Just see if you can't keep quiet, or
we shall be put out."
I was indeed very much annoyed, and some people near by were turning in
their chairs and frowning.--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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