The Happy Hypocrite: A Fairy Tale for Tired Men — John Shaqi
The Happy Hypocrite: A Fairy Tale for Tired MenBeerbohm, Max, Sir
Science
The Happy Hypocrite: A Fairy Tale for Tired Men
Beerbohm, Max, Sir
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Fantasy fiction; Love stories; Masks -- Fiction
Every day chastened him with its joy. They lived a very simple life, he
and Jenny. They rose betimes, like the birds, for whose goodness they
both had so sincere a love. Bread and honey and little strawberries were
their morning fare, and in the evening they had seed-cake and dewberry
wine. Jenny herself made the wine, and her husband drank it, in strict
moderation, never more than two glasses. He thought it tasted far better
than the Regent's cherry brandy, or the Tokay at Brooks's. Of these
treasured topes he had indeed, nearly forgotten the taste. The wine made
from wild berries by his little bride was august enough for his palate.
Sometimes, after they had dined thus, he would play the flute to her
upon the moonlit lawn, or tell her of the great daisy-chain he was going
to make for her on the morrow, or sit silently by her side, listening to
the nightingale, till bedtime. So admirably simple were their days.
V
One morning, as he was helping Jenny to water the flowers, he said to
her suddenly, "Sweetheart, we had forgotten!"
"What was there we should forget?" asked Jenny, looking up from her
task.
"'Tis the mensiversary of our wedding," her husband answered gravely.
"We must not let it pass without some celebration."
"No indeed," she said, "we must not. What shall we do?"
Between them they decided upon an unusual feast. They would go into the
village and buy a bag of beautiful buns and eat them in the afternoon.
So soon, then, as all the flowers were watered, they set forth to
Herbert's shop, bought the buns and returned home in very high spirits,
George bearing a paper bag that held no less than twelve of the
wholesome delicacies. Under the plane-tree on the lawn Jenny sat her
down, and George stretched himself at her feet. They were loth to enjoy
their feast too soon. They dallied in childish anticipation. On the
little rustic table Jenny built up the buns, one above another, till
they looked like a tall pagoda. When, very gingerly, she had crowned the
structure with the twelfth bun, her husband looking on with admiration,
she clapped her hands and danced about it. She laughed so loudly (for,
though she was only sixteen years old, she had a great sense of humour)
that the table shook, and alas! the pagoda tottered and fell to the
lawn. Swift as a kitten, Jenny chased the buns, as they rolled, hither
and thither, over the grass, catching them deftly with her hand. Then
she came back, flushed and merry under her tumbled hair, with her arm
full of buns. She began to put them back in the paper bag.
"Dear husband," she said, looking down to him, "Why do not you too smile
at my folly? Your grave face rebukes me. Smile, or I shall think I vex
you. Please smile a little."
But the mask could not smile, of course. It was made for a mirror of
true love, and it was grave and immobile. "I am very much amused, dear,"
he said, "at the fall of the buns, but my lips will not curve to a
smile. Love of you has bound them in spell."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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