The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (2.1894)

The Coxon Fund

By Henry James

I

« <-TpHEY'vE got him for life !" I said to myself that evening on
my way back to the Station ; but later, alone in the com-
partment (from Wimbledon to Waterloo, before the glory of the
District Railway), I amended this declaration in the light of the
sense that my friends would probably after all not enjoy a monopoly
of Mr. Saltram. I won't pretend to have taken his vast measure on
that first occasion ; but I think I had achieved a glimpse of what
the privilege of his acquaintance might mean for many persons in
the way of charges accepted. He had been a great experience,
and it was this perhaps that had put me into a frame for divining
that we should all have the honour, sooner or later, of dealing
with him as a whole. Whatever impression I then received of
the amount of this total, I had a füll enough vision of the patience
of the Mulvilles. He was staying with them for the winter ;
Adelaide dropped it in a tone which drew the sting from the
temporary. These excellent people might indeed have been
content to give the circle of hospitality a diameter of six months ;
but if they didn't say that he was staying for the summer as well
it was only because this was more than they ventured to hope. I

remember