THE FAIR REWARDS _NEW BORZOI NOVELS_ _SPRING, 1922_ WANDERERS _Knut Hamsun_ MEN OF AFFAIRS _Roland Pertwee_ THE FAIR REWARDS _Thomas Beer_ I WALKED IN ARDEN _Jack Crawford_ GUEST THE ONE-EYED _Gunnar Gunnarsson_ THE GARDEN PARTY _Katherine Mansfield_ THE LONGEST JOURNEY _E. M. Forster_ THE SOUL OF A CHILD _Edwin Björkman_ CYTHEREA _Joseph Hergesheimer_ EXPLORERS OF THE DAWN _Mazo de la Roche_ THE WHITE KAMI _Edward Alden Jewell_ THE FAIR REWARDS THOMAS BEER “_Tell arts they have no soundness But vary by esteeming Tell schools they want profoundness And stand too much on seeming_”-- RALEGH _“Eh, sirs,” says Koshchei, “I contemplate the spectacle with appropriate emotions.”_ [Illustration] NEW YORK ALFRED·A·KNOPF 1922 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. _Published, February, 1922_ _Set up and electrotyped by the Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton, N.Y._ _Paper furnished by S. D. Warren & Co., Boston, Mass._ _Printed and bound by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Mass._ MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA To M. A. A. B. CONTENTS CHAPTER I MANUFACTURE OF A PERSONAGE, 9 II HE PROGRESSES, 23 III FULL BLOOM, 47 IV PENALTIES, 78 V MARGOT, 104 VI GURDY, 135 VII “TODGERS INTRUDES,” 170 VIII COSMO RAND, 192 IX BUBBLE, 214 X THE IDOLATER, 250 XI THE WALLING, 272 I Manufacture of a Personage John Carlson began the rehearsals of “Nicoline” in early August of 1895. For a week he tried to correct the hot labours of the whole, large company. He was nervous about this production. His digestion interfered. His temper grew explosive. The leading woman was alarmed for her gentility. The leading man disliked his part of a cheap rake. Carlson abandoned the minor folk to his stage manager, Rothenstein, and nursed these two clumsy celebrities toward a certain ease. But his stomach suffered. He attended the opening night of “The Prisoner of Zenda” at the Lyceum, fainted during the second act and was revived with brandy in Mr. Frohman’s office. The brandy gave him fever; he spent the six days remaining before “Nicoline” opened, in his bed. Yet on a warm Monday night he dressed his gaunt body gorgeously, shaved his yellow face, thrust an orchid into his coat and dined at Martin’s with young Mr. Fitch who had adapted “Nicoline” from the French. Carlson swore in Swedish when agony seized his stomach. Mr. Fitch, sipping white Burgundy, observed that it must be pleasant to swear incomprehensibly. “Sure,” said Carlson, shivering, “but what was you sayin’?”