DOI Artikel:
James, Henry: The next time
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27805#0060
The Next Time
56
Touching and admirable at the last, when, through the unmistake-
able change in Limbert’s health, her troubles were thickest, was
the spectacle of the particular pride that she wouldn’t have
exchanged for prosperity. She had said to me once—only once, in
a gloomy hour in London days, when things were not going at all
—that one really had to think him a very great man, because if
one didn’t one would be rather ashamed of him. She had distinctly
felt it at first—and in a very tender place—that almost every one
passed him on the road ; but I believe that in these final years she
would almost have been ashamed of him if he had suddenly gone
into editions. It is certain indeed that her complacency was not
subjected to that shock. She would have liked the money im-
mensely, but she would have missed something she had taught
herself to regard as rather rare. There is another remark I re-
member her making, a remark to the effect that of course if she
could have chosen she would have liked him to be Shakespeare or
Scott, but that, failing this, she was very glad he wasn’t—well, she
named the two gentlemen, but I won’t. I daresay she sometimes
laughed to escape from an alternative. She contributed passion-
ately to the capture of the second manner, foraging for him further
afield than he could conveniently go, gleaning in the barest
stubble, picking up shreds to build the nest and, in particular in the
study of the great secret of how, as we always said, they all did it,
laying waste the circulating libraries. If Limbert had a weakness
he rather broke down in his reading. It was fortunately not till
after the appearance of The Hidden Heart that he broke down in
everything else. He had had rheumatic fever in the spring, when
the book was but half finished, and this ordeal, in addition to
interrupting his work, had enfeebled his powers of resistance and
greatly reduced his vitality. He recovered from the fever and was
able to take up the book again, but the organ of life was pro-
nounced
56
Touching and admirable at the last, when, through the unmistake-
able change in Limbert’s health, her troubles were thickest, was
the spectacle of the particular pride that she wouldn’t have
exchanged for prosperity. She had said to me once—only once, in
a gloomy hour in London days, when things were not going at all
—that one really had to think him a very great man, because if
one didn’t one would be rather ashamed of him. She had distinctly
felt it at first—and in a very tender place—that almost every one
passed him on the road ; but I believe that in these final years she
would almost have been ashamed of him if he had suddenly gone
into editions. It is certain indeed that her complacency was not
subjected to that shock. She would have liked the money im-
mensely, but she would have missed something she had taught
herself to regard as rather rare. There is another remark I re-
member her making, a remark to the effect that of course if she
could have chosen she would have liked him to be Shakespeare or
Scott, but that, failing this, she was very glad he wasn’t—well, she
named the two gentlemen, but I won’t. I daresay she sometimes
laughed to escape from an alternative. She contributed passion-
ately to the capture of the second manner, foraging for him further
afield than he could conveniently go, gleaning in the barest
stubble, picking up shreds to build the nest and, in particular in the
study of the great secret of how, as we always said, they all did it,
laying waste the circulating libraries. If Limbert had a weakness
he rather broke down in his reading. It was fortunately not till
after the appearance of The Hidden Heart that he broke down in
everything else. He had had rheumatic fever in the spring, when
the book was but half finished, and this ordeal, in addition to
interrupting his work, had enfeebled his powers of resistance and
greatly reduced his vitality. He recovered from the fever and was
able to take up the book again, but the organ of life was pro-
nounced