Jinny looked sideways at him in a spirit of
examination, and picked the inevitable crumb deftly from his beard.
'Reminiscences!' she observed slyly. 'You did have some tea, then.'
Her long word was well chosen for once; her mind unusually logical,
too.
But Daddy made no reply; he went on eating whatever was set before him
with an air of complete detachment; he devoured cold ham and salad
automatically; and the children, accustomed to this absorption,
ignored his presence. He was still in the atmosphere of his work,
abstracted, lost to the outer world. They knew they would only, get
wumbled answers to their questions and remarks, and they did not dare
to tease him. From time to time he lifted his eyes--very bright they
were--and glanced round the table, dimly aware that he was in the
midst of a stream of noisy chatter, but unable to enter it
successfully at any point. Mother, watching him, thought, 'He's
sitting on air, he's wrapped in light, he's very happy'; and ate an
enormous supper, as though an insatiable hunger was in her.
The governess, Mlle. Vuillemot, who stood in awe of the 'author' in
him, seized her opportunity. She loved to exchange a _mot_ with a real
writer, reading all kinds of unintended subtlety into his brief
replies in dreadful French. To-night she asked him the meaning of a
word, title of a Tauchnitz novel she had been reading--Juggernaut;
but, being on his deaf side, he caught 'Huguenot' instead, and gave
her a laboured explanation, strangled by appalling grammar.
Pages:
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441