The Masterfolk : $b wherein is attempted the unravelling of the strange affair of my Lord Wyntwarde of Cavil and Miss Betty ModeyneMacfall, Haldane
General
The Masterfolk : $b wherein is attempted the unravelling of the strange affair of my Lord Wyntwarde of Cavil and Miss Betty Modeyne
Macfall, Haldane
Bohemianism -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Paris (France) -- Fiction
Horace descended from Mount Parnassus in a whirlwind. Indeed, he had a
keen sense for the becomingness of things. He was the poor student to
the end. He departed from Bohemia in the tattered habit of Bohemia and
after the fashion of Bohemia--indeed, it was splendid poverty.
The courtyard swarmed with students, and Gaston Latour stood solemnly
directing the devilries, his pale face more than usually tricked with
gloom, his dreamy poetic eyes dark with melancholy, his lips sounding
blood-curdling ear-splitting blares upon his hunting-horn, regardless
of all the municipal laws against the use of the same except at public
festivals. The place was astir with chatter and laughter and fool’s
play and the coming and going of feet.
In the midst of the ferment, Horace and others were securing his
baggage to a handcart, the embarrassed porter standing to one side, his
hands itching to do the roping.
A loud blare from Latour’s hunting-horn--and there was silence.
Horace strode up to the fat concierge, who stood on the steps with her
three small children, the better to see the sights. He lifted each of
the little ones, gave them a hug, and setting them down on the steps
again, slipped a large silver piece into the small fingers. He took
off his hat, and kissed the jolly old woman upon the cheek before them
all, and slipped a hundred-franc note into her rough toil-worn hand.
The little ones began to cry, and the concierge, the tears in her eyes,
told them not to be stupid.
Horace patted them on the head:
“I’m coming back to play with you, you lazy little rascals,” said he;
and putting on his hat, he pulled it well over his eyes.
He strode over to the handcart, and at a sign from him, they seized
the porter and hove his expostulating bulk a-top of the baggage, where
he was compelled to sit for the remainder of the journey across Paris
to the railway-station of the north, in embarrassed discomfort; and
Horace getting between the shafts, a bevy of students set the light
rattling affair moving on clattering wheels, and the noisy party,
pushing, pulling, and hauling and bawling, marched out of the courtyard
in escort amidst the waving of handkerchiefs from windows and the last
farewells.
A fussy burgess, put to the wall with some indignity by the stream of
careless students, went up to a group of police and reminded them that
the hunting-horn was not allowed to be blown in Paris except on certain
high festivals.
His venom was wasted.
The police shrugged amused shoulders:
“It is true,” said they--“but it is only the students....”
As they came into the Boule Miche, singing the National Anthem, the
landlords of the taverns and cafés and the white-aproned waiters came
out to their doors, and greeted the noisy crew--indeed, Horace was well
known, and his genial ways and amiable personality robbed him of all
enemies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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