DOI Artikel:
Harland, Henry: The bohemian girl
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21805#0033
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By Henry Harland
she said, “ to find nothing changed. To think that everything
has gone on quietly in the usual way. As if I hadn’t spent an
eternity in exile ! ” And at the corner of one Street, before a vast
flaunting “ bazaar,” with a prodigality of tawdry Oriental wares
exhibited on the pavement, and little black shopmen trailing like
beetles in and out amongst them, “ Oh,” she cried, “the ‘Mecque
du Quartier’! To think that I could weep for joy at seeing the
c Mecque du Quartier ’! ”
By and by we plunged into a dark hallway, climbed a long,
unsavoury corkscrew staircase, and knocked at a door. A gruff
voice having answered, “ ’Trez ! ” we entered Chalks’s bare,
bleak, paint-smelling Studio. He was working (from a lay-figure)
with his back towards us ; and he went on working for a minute
or two after our arrival, without speaking. Then he demanded,
in a sort of grünt, “ Eh bien, qu’est ce que c’est ? ” always with-
out pausing in his work or looking round. Nina gave two little
ahems, tense with suppressed mirth ; and slowly, indifferentlv,
Chalks turned an absent-minded face in our direction. But, next
instant, there was a shout—a rush—a confusion of forms in the
middle of the floor—and I realised that I was not the only one to
be honoured by a kiss and an embrace. “ Oh, you’re covering
me with paint,” Nina protested suddenly ; and indeed he had
forgotten to drop his brush and palette, and great dabs of colour
were clinging to her cloak. While he was doing penance,
scrubbing the garment with rags soaked in turpentine, he kept
shaking his head, and murmuring, from time to time, as he
glanced up at her, “ Well, I’ll be dumned.”
“ It’s very nice and polite of you, Chalks,” she said, by and by,
“a very graceful concession to my sex. But, if you think it
would relieve you once for all, you have my full permission to
pronounce it —amned.”
Chalks
By Henry Harland
she said, “ to find nothing changed. To think that everything
has gone on quietly in the usual way. As if I hadn’t spent an
eternity in exile ! ” And at the corner of one Street, before a vast
flaunting “ bazaar,” with a prodigality of tawdry Oriental wares
exhibited on the pavement, and little black shopmen trailing like
beetles in and out amongst them, “ Oh,” she cried, “the ‘Mecque
du Quartier’! To think that I could weep for joy at seeing the
c Mecque du Quartier ’! ”
By and by we plunged into a dark hallway, climbed a long,
unsavoury corkscrew staircase, and knocked at a door. A gruff
voice having answered, “ ’Trez ! ” we entered Chalks’s bare,
bleak, paint-smelling Studio. He was working (from a lay-figure)
with his back towards us ; and he went on working for a minute
or two after our arrival, without speaking. Then he demanded,
in a sort of grünt, “ Eh bien, qu’est ce que c’est ? ” always with-
out pausing in his work or looking round. Nina gave two little
ahems, tense with suppressed mirth ; and slowly, indifferentlv,
Chalks turned an absent-minded face in our direction. But, next
instant, there was a shout—a rush—a confusion of forms in the
middle of the floor—and I realised that I was not the only one to
be honoured by a kiss and an embrace. “ Oh, you’re covering
me with paint,” Nina protested suddenly ; and indeed he had
forgotten to drop his brush and palette, and great dabs of colour
were clinging to her cloak. While he was doing penance,
scrubbing the garment with rags soaked in turpentine, he kept
shaking his head, and murmuring, from time to time, as he
glanced up at her, “ Well, I’ll be dumned.”
“ It’s very nice and polite of you, Chalks,” she said, by and by,
“a very graceful concession to my sex. But, if you think it
would relieve you once for all, you have my full permission to
pronounce it —amned.”
Chalks