DOI article:
Dowie, Ménie Muriel: Wladlislaw's Advent
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21805#0107
By Menie Muriel Dowie 103
of the packet in which he bought his tobacco. A careful observer
might have accurately dated the arrival of his funds by noting the
orange paper which inclosed his “ Levant Superieur.” Then, as
it behoved him to be careful, the canary yellow of the cheaper
“ Levant ” ; and finally the sign manual of approaching destitu-
tion in the common brown wrapper of his “ Caporal.” I am
inclined to say that I noticed his leisurely but inevitable descent
of these pecuniary steps every month.
Further, if moderately affluent, he would indulge in live sous’
worth of roasted chestnuts whenever we went out together, and
only on one occasion did it occur to me to provide him with a
tram fare. Despite this poverty, I am very sure that when he
arranged ultimately, at my instance, to sit to Monsieur Dufour
for his picture of u Christ led up into the Wilderness to be
tempted of the Devil,” Wladislaw was very far from thinking of
the remuneration.
The fact was, he had differed rather pointedly with a big
Russian at the evening dass, a man preternaturally irritable
because eternally afflicted by the toothache ; there had been
words, the Russian had announced his intention of throwing the
Pole from the top of the stairs, and being a taller, more muscular
fellow, had picked him up and carried him to the door, when
Wladislaw wriggled dexterously from his grasp, and jerked him
down no fewer than eleven steps upon his spine. He described to me
afterwards with less truth than artistic sympathy the neat bobbing
sound as each individual vertebra knocked upon the wooden
stairs.
This incident, and the fact that the Russian had taken an oath
in public to pay his defeat a round dozen of times, served to cool
Wladislaw’s interest in the evening dass. He told me also that
the light tried his eyes ; and he would come up in the morning
with
of the packet in which he bought his tobacco. A careful observer
might have accurately dated the arrival of his funds by noting the
orange paper which inclosed his “ Levant Superieur.” Then, as
it behoved him to be careful, the canary yellow of the cheaper
“ Levant ” ; and finally the sign manual of approaching destitu-
tion in the common brown wrapper of his “ Caporal.” I am
inclined to say that I noticed his leisurely but inevitable descent
of these pecuniary steps every month.
Further, if moderately affluent, he would indulge in live sous’
worth of roasted chestnuts whenever we went out together, and
only on one occasion did it occur to me to provide him with a
tram fare. Despite this poverty, I am very sure that when he
arranged ultimately, at my instance, to sit to Monsieur Dufour
for his picture of u Christ led up into the Wilderness to be
tempted of the Devil,” Wladislaw was very far from thinking of
the remuneration.
The fact was, he had differed rather pointedly with a big
Russian at the evening dass, a man preternaturally irritable
because eternally afflicted by the toothache ; there had been
words, the Russian had announced his intention of throwing the
Pole from the top of the stairs, and being a taller, more muscular
fellow, had picked him up and carried him to the door, when
Wladislaw wriggled dexterously from his grasp, and jerked him
down no fewer than eleven steps upon his spine. He described to me
afterwards with less truth than artistic sympathy the neat bobbing
sound as each individual vertebra knocked upon the wooden
stairs.
This incident, and the fact that the Russian had taken an oath
in public to pay his defeat a round dozen of times, served to cool
Wladislaw’s interest in the evening dass. He told me also that
the light tried his eyes ; and he would come up in the morning
with