The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, October, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913Various
General
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, October, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913
Various
Periodicals
“Horace. In spite of his genius, the ‘Lampoons’ make you feel he was
rather a blackguard.”
“Horace!” For the moment T. Tembarom forgot himself. “I always heard he
was a sort of Y. M. C. A. old guy--old Horace Greeley. The ‘Tribune’
was no yellow journal when he had it.”
He was sorry he had spoken the next moment. Strangeways looked puzzled.
“The ’Tribune,’” he hesitated. “The Roman tribune?”
“No, New York. He started it--old Horace did. But perhaps we’re not
talking of the same man.”
Strangeways hesitated again.
“No, I think we’re not,” he answered politely.
“I’ve made a break,” thought Tembarom. “I ought to have kept my mouth
shut. I must try to switch him back.”
Strangeways was looking down at the back of the book he held in his
hand.
“This one was the Latin poet, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65
~B.C.~ You know it,” he said.
“Oh, _that_ one!” exclaimed Tembarom, as if with an air of immense
relief. “What a fool I was to forget! I’m glad it’s him. Will you go on
reading, and let me hear some more? He’s a winner from Winnersville,
that Horace is.”
Perhaps it was a sort of miracle, accomplished by his great desire to
help the right thing to happen, to stave off any shadow of the wrong
thing. Whatsoever the reason, Strangeways waited only a moment before
turning to his book again. It seemed to be a link in some chain slowly
forming itself to draw him back from his wanderings. And T. Tembarom,
lightly sweating as a frightened horse will, sat smoking another pipe
and listening intently to “Satires” and “Lampoons,” read aloud in the
Latin of 65 ~B.C.~
“By gee!” he said faithfully, at intervals, when he saw on the reader’s
face that the moment was ripe, “He knew it all,--old Horace,--didn’t
he?”
He had steered his charge back. Things were coming along the line to
him. He’d learned Latin at one of these big English schools. Boys
always learned Latin, the duke had told him. They just had to. Most of
them hated it like thunder, and they used to be caned when they didn’t
recite it right. Perhaps if he went on, he’d begin to remember the
school. A queer part of it was that he did not seem to notice that he
was not reading his own language.
He did not, in fact, seem to remember anything in particular, but went
on quite naturally for some minutes. He had replaced Horace on the
shelf and was on the point of taking another book when he paused, as if
recalling something else.
“Weren’t we going to see the picture-gallery?” he inquired. “Isn’t it
getting late? I should like to see the portraits.”
“No hurry,” answered T. Tembarom. “I was just waiting till you were
ready. But we’ll go right away, if you like.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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