The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable FamilyThackeray, William Makepeace
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The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Domestic fiction; Families -- England -- Fiction
“‘Here will be your place, Mr. Newcome,’ says the Professor, ‘and here
that of your young friend—what did you say was his name?’ I told him
Rigby, for my dear old governor has promised to pay for J. J. too, you
know. ‘Mr. Chivers is the senior pupil and custos of the room in the
absence of my son. Mr. Chivers, Mr. Newcome; gentlemen, Mr. Newcome, a
new pupil. My son, Charles Gandish, Mr. Newcome. Assiduity, gentlemen,
assiduity. _Ars longa. Vita brevis, et linea recta brevissima est_.
This way, Colonel, down these steps, across the courtyard, to my own
studio. There, gentlemen,’—and pulling aside a curtain, Gandish says
‘There!’”
“And what was the masterpiece behind it?” we ask of Clive, after we
have done laughing at his imitation.
“Hand round the hat, J. J.!” cries Clive. “Now, ladies and gentlemen,
pay your money. Now walk in, for the performance is ‘just a-going to
begin.’” Nor would the rogue ever tell us what Gandish’s curtained
picture was.
Not a successful painter, Mr. Gandish was an excellent master, and
regarding all artists save one perhaps a good critic. Clive and his
friend J. J. came soon after and commenced their studies under him. The
one took his humble seat at the drawing-board, a poor mean-looking lad,
with worn clothes, downcast features, and a figure almost deformed; the
other adorned by good health, good looks, and the best of tailors;
ushered into the studio with his father and Mr. Smee as his
aides-de-camp on his entry; and previously announced there with all the
eloquence of honest Gandish. “I bet he’s ’ad cake and wine,” says one
youthful student, of an epicurean and satirical turn. “I bet he might
have it every day if he liked.” In fact Gandish was always handing him
sweetmeats of compliments and cordials of approbation. He had
coat-sleeves with silk linings—he had studs in his shirt. How different
was the texture and colour of that garment, to the sleeves Bob Grimes
displayed when he took his coat off to put on his working jacket!
Horses used actually to come for him to Gandish’s door (which was
situated in a certain lofty street in Soho). The Miss G.’s would smile
at him from the parlour window as he mounted and rode splendidly off;
and those opposition beauties, the Miss Levisons, daughters of the
professor of dancing over the way, seldom failed to greet the young
gentleman with an admiring ogle from their great black eyes. Master
Clive was pronounced an ‘out-and-outer,’ a ‘swell and no mistake,’ and
complimented with scarce one dissentient voice by the simple academy at
Gandish’s. Besides, he drew very well. There could be no doubt about
that. Caricatures of the students of course were passing constantly
among them, and in revenge for one which a huge red-haired Scotch
student, Mr. Sandy M’Collop, had made of John James, Clive perpetrated
a picture of Sandy which set the whole room in a roar; and when the
Caledonian giant uttered satirical remarks against the assembled
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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