DOI article:
James, Henry: The Coxon Fund
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21215#0364
36°
The Coxon Fund
when I burnt it unread. The Pudneys approached her again
pressingly, but, prompt as they were, the Coxon Fund had already
become an operative benefit and a general amaze ; Mr. Saltram,
while we gathered about, as it were, to watch the manna descend,
was already drawing the magnificent income. He drew it as he
had always drawn everything, with a grand abstracted gesture.
Its magnificence, alas, as all the world now knows, quite quenched
him ; it was the beginning of his decline. It was also naturally
a new grievance for his wife, who began to believe in himassoon
as he was blighted and who to this day accuses us of having bribed
him to gratify the fad of a pushing American, to renounce his
glorious office, to become, as she says, like everybody eise. On
the day he found himself able to publish he wholly ceased to produce.
This deprived us, as may easily be imagined, of much of our
occupation, and especially deprived the Mulvilles, whose want of
self-support I never measured tili they lost their great inmate.
They have no one to live on now. Adelaide's most frequent
reference to their destitution is embodied in the remark that dear
far-away Ruth's intentions were doubtless good. She and Kent
are even yet looking for another prop, but every one is so dread-
fully robust. With Saltram the type was scattered, the grander,
the eider style. They have got their carriage back, but what's an
empty carriage ? In short, I think we were all happier as well as
poorer before ; even including George Gravener, who, by the
deaths of his brother and his nephew, has lately become Lord
Maddock. His wife, whose fortune clears the property, is
criminally dull ; he hates being in the Upper House and he has
not yet had high office. But what are these accidents, which I
should perhaps apologise for mentioning, in the light of the great
eventual boon promised the patient by the rate at which the Coxon
Fund must be rolling up ?
The Coxon Fund
when I burnt it unread. The Pudneys approached her again
pressingly, but, prompt as they were, the Coxon Fund had already
become an operative benefit and a general amaze ; Mr. Saltram,
while we gathered about, as it were, to watch the manna descend,
was already drawing the magnificent income. He drew it as he
had always drawn everything, with a grand abstracted gesture.
Its magnificence, alas, as all the world now knows, quite quenched
him ; it was the beginning of his decline. It was also naturally
a new grievance for his wife, who began to believe in himassoon
as he was blighted and who to this day accuses us of having bribed
him to gratify the fad of a pushing American, to renounce his
glorious office, to become, as she says, like everybody eise. On
the day he found himself able to publish he wholly ceased to produce.
This deprived us, as may easily be imagined, of much of our
occupation, and especially deprived the Mulvilles, whose want of
self-support I never measured tili they lost their great inmate.
They have no one to live on now. Adelaide's most frequent
reference to their destitution is embodied in the remark that dear
far-away Ruth's intentions were doubtless good. She and Kent
are even yet looking for another prop, but every one is so dread-
fully robust. With Saltram the type was scattered, the grander,
the eider style. They have got their carriage back, but what's an
empty carriage ? In short, I think we were all happier as well as
poorer before ; even including George Gravener, who, by the
deaths of his brother and his nephew, has lately become Lord
Maddock. His wife, whose fortune clears the property, is
criminally dull ; he hates being in the Upper House and he has
not yet had high office. But what are these accidents, which I
should perhaps apologise for mentioning, in the light of the great
eventual boon promised the patient by the rate at which the Coxon
Fund must be rolling up ?