"Aren"t you any better?" and I scanned his face closely.
He was not more than twenty, and had a singularly fine type of countenance.
"Oh yes, thanks! Crawling on."
"Any news?"
"None, I think, except that I"ve broken with Kitty."
I laughed.
"I knew you"d have to!" I said. "Did I not say so from the first? I felt sure you could never stand her!"
"I am rather sorry, for she was very pretty; but the last straw she put upon me was too much. I couldn"t--after that--no, I couldn"t, really."
"What was it?" I said, laughing, as he shook his head dubiously and looked meditatively into the fire.
"Why, I sent her a sonnet--at least, no, a verse--and we were talking about it afterwards, I had written--"
"And leaning sideways, looks, and lifts The tresses of her heavy hair."
"See?"
I nodded.
"Well, she objected to the adjective "heavy," and wanted me to insert another. What word do you think she suggested?"
"Can"t say at all. Golden, perhaps!"
"Worse!" he answered, with a groan. "Golden is hackneyed but still conceivable. No--Crimpy! my dear fellow! Think of it!"
I went into a fit of laughter.
"Heavens! well I must say I never should have thought of that," I said.
"What a fearful girl. And what did you say?"
"Say! I tried to explain to her the awfulness of it, the incongruity, but no, she couldn"t see it! We jawed about it for a couple of hours with the result that our engagement is now off!"
"Good. I am very glad to hear it; but perhaps a Breach of Promise will come on?"
"Can"t help it. Anything would be better than to go through life with a girl who didn"t feel there are some things no fellar can do; and one of them, that he can"t put a word like crimpy in his sonnet."
"Been doing any work?"
"Yes; one poem. Like to see it?"
"Very much."
He got up and went to a table littered all over with papers--written, printed, and blank. After a time he extracted the one he wanted, handed it to me, and then flung himself into the chair again.
"Whew! This t.i.tle won"t do. "The Hermaphrodite!" That"s far too alarming for the British public."
"Oh, bother! Well, go on. Read the poem."
I did so in silence.
"First-rate," I said, when I had finished. "Not a weak line in it. Not a single weak line. And there"s nothing to prevent its being taken even in this d----d England, I think. The t.i.tle"s the worst part. You"ll have to alter that."
"Why? Swinburne has a poem, "Hermaphroditus.""
"Yes--in a volume; and there it"s Latinised; and then Swinburne has made his name, which of course is everything. If you want to make your debut before the English reading world you must do so with "Ode to my father"s tombstone," or something of that sort!"
"Well, if you think Latin would improve it, let"s put "Duplexus" as its t.i.tle," he answered, laughing and trying to s.n.a.t.c.h back the paper.
"Not on any account!" I said. "That would sound cynical, and cynical when you"re unknown you must not be."
"Oh, well, there! I leave it to you to find a t.i.tle! I don"t care what it"s called."
I looked through the verses trying to catch an idea for a name. Numbers suggested themselves to me, but none sufficiently vague and indefinite to suit the English ear. At last I said--
"Do you think Linked Spheres would do?"
"Linked Spheres?" replied Howard, with elevated brows. "What on earth has that to do with the subject?"
"Well, I have taken it from this line where you say, "And in his brain are two divided worlds of thought.""
"But I say that they are divided--divided isn"t linked!"
"No, I quite admit it. But though divided they must be linked to a certain extent by being both within his brain. It is not quite right though, because the walls of the skull might, by encircling the two worlds, be said to unite them, but they could not "link" anything. I follow all that, and I don"t think the t.i.tle is particularly artistic.
It"s not clear enough. Your own is much better from the view of intrinsic fitness. But the beauty of Linked Spheres is its indistinctness. You must not be too clear. That has been my great fault--perspicuity--and I am beginning to see it now. It has fatally barred my getting on. I always do try to make people see exactly what I mean, and that is apparently a mistake. When I write about pa.s.sion everybody feels it is pa.s.sion, and is shocked in consequence. When another fellow writes about it you feel he is trying to say something, but you are not quite sure what, and so it doesn"t matter."
""Muddle it! muddle it!" must be your watchword if you want to pa.s.s muster through the British press. Linked Spheres is a splendid muddle--very indefinite, quite void of connection with the subject in hand, and with a pleasant tinkle about the sound, just like Gladstone"s speeches! Linked Spheres! It"s impossible, for how the deuce would you link a sphere? Metaphor all wrong, and no one will know in the least what you mean, but it sounds pleasant and polished, and perfectly proper, and you"ll find your editor will swallow the poem at a gulp."
Howard laughed.
"You"re in an awful huff, Victor, with the British press, that"s clear!"
I laughed too.
"Yes I am, I admit it, and all this leads up to the question I came to ask you this afternoon. Will you come over to Paris with me? I am going."
I got up and leant against the mantel-piece, pushing a place clear for my elbow on it between a bottle of liqueur and a copy of "The Holy Grail."
"You"re great at springing mines upon one. Paris? why Paris? And how can you tear yourself away from Lucia?"
"I wish you would not p.r.o.nounce that word as if it rhymed with Fuchsia," I said.
"Well, how do you want me to p.r.o.nounce it?"