DOI article:
Harland, Henry: When I am king
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27812#0079
By Henry Harland 75
pummelling her in the Rue Gay-Lussac. He hastened to remon-
strate ; and the husband went olT^ hiccoughing of his outraged
rights, and calling the universe to witness that he would have the
law of the meddling stranger. Pair picked the girl up (she was
scarcely eighteen then, and had only been married a sixmonth), he
picked her up from where she had fallen, half fainting, on the
pavement, carried her to his lodgings, which were at hand, and
sent for a doctor. In his manuscript-littered study for rather
more than nine weeks she lay on a bed of fever, the consequence
of blows, exhaustion, and exposure. When she got well there
was no talk of her leaving. Pair couldn't let her go back to her
tailor ; he couldn't turn her into the streets. Besides, during the
months that he had nursed her, he had somehow conceived a great
tenderness for her ; it made his heart burn with grief and anger
to think of what she had suffered in the past, and he yearned to
sustain and protect and comfort her for the future. This perhaps
was no more than natural; but, what rather upset the calculations
of his friends, she, towards whom he had established himself in the
relation of a benefactor, bore him, instead of a grudge therefor, a
passionate gratitude and affection. So, Pair said, they were only
waiting till her tailor should drink himself to death, to get married;
and meanwhile, he exacted for her all the respect that would have
been due to his wife ; and everybody called her by his name. She
was a pretty little thing, very daintily formed, with tiny hands and
feet, and big gipsyish brown eyes ; and very delicate, very fragile—
she looked as if anything might carry her off. Her name, Gode-
leine, seeming much too grand and mediaeval for so small and actual
a person, Pair had turned it into Godelinette.
We all said, " He is splendidly gifted ; he will do great things."
He had studied at Cambridge and at Leipsic before coming to
Paris. He was learned, enlightened, and extremely modern ; he
was
pummelling her in the Rue Gay-Lussac. He hastened to remon-
strate ; and the husband went olT^ hiccoughing of his outraged
rights, and calling the universe to witness that he would have the
law of the meddling stranger. Pair picked the girl up (she was
scarcely eighteen then, and had only been married a sixmonth), he
picked her up from where she had fallen, half fainting, on the
pavement, carried her to his lodgings, which were at hand, and
sent for a doctor. In his manuscript-littered study for rather
more than nine weeks she lay on a bed of fever, the consequence
of blows, exhaustion, and exposure. When she got well there
was no talk of her leaving. Pair couldn't let her go back to her
tailor ; he couldn't turn her into the streets. Besides, during the
months that he had nursed her, he had somehow conceived a great
tenderness for her ; it made his heart burn with grief and anger
to think of what she had suffered in the past, and he yearned to
sustain and protect and comfort her for the future. This perhaps
was no more than natural; but, what rather upset the calculations
of his friends, she, towards whom he had established himself in the
relation of a benefactor, bore him, instead of a grudge therefor, a
passionate gratitude and affection. So, Pair said, they were only
waiting till her tailor should drink himself to death, to get married;
and meanwhile, he exacted for her all the respect that would have
been due to his wife ; and everybody called her by his name. She
was a pretty little thing, very daintily formed, with tiny hands and
feet, and big gipsyish brown eyes ; and very delicate, very fragile—
she looked as if anything might carry her off. Her name, Gode-
leine, seeming much too grand and mediaeval for so small and actual
a person, Pair had turned it into Godelinette.
We all said, " He is splendidly gifted ; he will do great things."
He had studied at Cambridge and at Leipsic before coming to
Paris. He was learned, enlightened, and extremely modern ; he
was