"I know, I know," she whispered; "your hands--they are like the hands of--"
Arpad threw out his chest, and Lora heard with a curiosity that became nervous a rhythmic wagging sound, like velvet bruised by some dull implement. It frightened her.
"Do not be afraid of me," he begged. "You cannot say anything I do not know already." He walked to the door, and the girl followed him.
"Don"t go, Arpad," she said with pretty remorse.
The fire blazed in his eyes and with a single swift grasp he seized her, holding her aloft like a torch. Lora almost lost consciousness. She had not counted upon such barbarous wooing, and, frightened, cried out, "Nielje, Nielje!"
Nielje burst into the room as if she had been very near the keyhole.
She was a powerful woman from Holland, who did not fear an army.
"Put her down!" she insisted, in her deepest gutturals. "Put her down, you brute, or I"ll hurt you."
Lora jumped to the floor as Nielje struck with her broomstick at Arpad"s retreating back. To the surprise of the women he gave a shriek of agony and ran to the door, Nielje following close behind. Lora, her eyes strained with excitement, did not stir; she heard a struggle in the little hall as the man fumbled at the bas.e.m.e.nt entrance. Again he yelled, and then Lora rushed to the window. Nielje, on her knees, was being dragged across the gra.s.sy s.p.a.ce in front of the house. She held on, seemingly, to the coat-tail of the frantic musician; only by a vigorous shove did he evade her persistent grasp and disappear.
A policeman with official aptness went leisurely by. Nielje flew into the house, locking and bolting the door. Her face was red as she rolled on the floor, her hands at her sides. Lora, alarmed, thought she was seriously hurt or hysterical from fright; but the laughter was too hearty and appealing.
"Oh, Meeslora! Oh, Meeslora!" she gasped. "He must be monkey-man--he has monkey tail!"
Lora could have fainted from chagrin and horror.
Had the great G.o.d Pan pa.s.sed her way?
BOOKS BY JAMES HUNEKER
What Maeterlinck wrote:
Maurice Maeterlinck wrote thus of James Huneker: "Do you know that "Iconoclasts" is the only book of high and universal critical worth that we have had for years--to be precise, since Georg Brandes. It is at once strong and fine, supple and firm, indulgent and sure."
The _Evening Post_ of June 10, 1915, wrote of Mr. Huneker"s "The New Cosmopolis":
"The region of Bohemia, Mr. James Huneker found long ago, is within us.
At twenty, he says, he discovered that there is no such enchanted spot as the Latin Quarter, but that every generation sets back the mythical land into the golden age of the Commune, or of 1848, or the days of "Hernani." It is the same with New York"s East Side, "the fabulous East Side," as Mr. Huneker calls it in his collection of international urban studies, "The New Cosmopolis." If one judged externals by grime, by poverty, by sanded back-rooms, with long-haired visionaries a.s.sailing the social order, then the East Side of the early eighties has gone down before the mad rush of settlement workers, impertinent reformers, sociological cranks, self-advertising politicians, billionaire socialists, and the reporters. To-day the sentimental traveller "feels a heart-pang to see the order, the cleanliness, the wide streets, the playgrounds, the big boulevards, the absence of indigence that have spoiled the most interesting part of New York City." But apparently this is only a first impression; for Mr. Huneker had no trouble in discovering in one cafe a patriarchal figure quite of the type beloved of the local-color hunters of twenty years ago, a prophet, though speaking a modern language and concerned with things of the day. So that we owe to Mr. Huneker the discovery of a notable truth, namely, that Bohemia is not only a creation of the sentimental memory, but, being psychological, may be located in clean and prosperous quarters. The tendency has always been to place it in a golden age, but a tattered and unswept age. Bohemia is now shown to exist amidst model tenements and sanitary drinking-cups."
IVORY APES AND PEAc.o.c.kS
_WITH FRONTISPIECE PORTRAIT OF DOSTOEVSKY_
NEW COSMOPOLIS
THE PATHOS _of_ DISTANCE
A Book of a Thousand and One Moments
PROMENADES _of an_ IMPRESSIONIST
"We like best such sober essays as those which a.n.a.lyze for us the technical contributions of Cezanne and Rodin. Here Mr. Huneker is a real interpreter, and here his long experience of men and ways in art counts for much. Charming, in the lighter vein, are such appreciations as the Monticelli, and Chardin."--FRANK JEWETT MATHER, JR., in _New York Nation_ and _Evening Post_.
EGOISTS
A Book of Supermen
STENDHAL, BAUDELAIRE, FLAUBERT, ANATOLE FRANCE, HUYSMANS, BARReS, h.e.l.lO, BLAKE, NIETZSCHE, IBSEN, AND MAX STIRNER
_With Portrait and Facsimile Reproductions_
ICONOCLASTS:
A Book of Dramatists
CONTENTS: Henrik Ibsen--August Strindberg--Henry Becque--Gerhart Hauptmann--Paul Hervieu--The Quintessence of Shaw--Maxim Gorky"s Nachtasyl--Hermann Sudermann--Princess Mathilde"s Play--Duse and D"Annunzio--Villiers de l"Isle Adam--Maurice Maeterlinck.
"His style is a little jerky, but it is one of those rare styles in which we are led to expect some significance, if not wit, in every sentence."--G.K. CHESTERTON, in _London Daily News_.