The Coxon Fund

ne of my great discomposures. Repetition, I well knew by this time, was the secret of Saltram’s power to alienate, and of course one would never

dented and really encouraging, had fortunately the attitude of blandness that might have been looked for in persons whom the promise of (if I’m not mistaken) An Analysis of Primary Ideas had drawn to the neighbourhood of Upper Baker Street. There was in those days in that region a petty lecture-hall to be secured on terms as moderate as the funds

ion was an accident, but if it had been calculated the reason would scarce have eluded an observer of the fact that no one else in the room had an approach to an appearance. Our philosopher’s “tail” was deplorably limp. This visitor was the only person who looked at her ease, who had come a little in the spirit of adventure. She seemed to carry amusement in her handsome young head, and her presence spoke, a little mystifyingly, of a sudden extension of Saltram’s sphere of influence. He was doing better than we hoped, and he had chosen such an occasion, of all occasions, to succumb to heaven knew which of his fond infirmities. The young lady produced an impression of auburn hair and black velvet, and had on her other hand a companion of obscurer type, presumably a waiting-maid. She herself might perhaps have been a foreign countess, and before she addressed me I had beguiled our sorry interval by finding in her a vague recall of the opening of some novel of Madame Sand. It didn’t make her more fathomable to pass in a few minutes from this to the certitude that she was American; it simply engendered depressing reflexions as to t

ity had no application to him, but it was a measure his wife kept challenging you to apply. I hasten to add that the consequences of your doing so were no sufficient reason for his having left her to starve. “He doesn’t seem to have much force of character,” said my young lady; at which I laughed out so loud that my departing friends looked back at me over their shoulders as if I were making a joke of their discomfiture. My joke probably cost Saltram a subscription or two, but it helped me on with my interlocutress. “She says he drinks like a fish,” she sociably continued, “and yet she allows that his mind’s wonderfully clear.” It was amusing to converse with a pretty girl who could talk of the clearness of Saltram’s mind. I expected next to hear she had b

re the fascination resi

ine eyebrows. “Do you

some quality or other that condemns us in advance to forgive him

umilia

e of his guarantors, before yo

bit, and if you did I should let you off, disappointed as I am; for t

n’t ‘see’ i

do you g

n’t suppose he’s goo

ife says h

tram’s part, of what was irritating in the narrowness of that lady’s point of view? “Mrs. Saltram,” I explained, “undervalues him where he’s strongest, so that, to ma

She had evidently heard all about his great eyes — th

gerous coast. But he moves badly and dresses w

ct on this, after a moment appealed

at first flushed night, had put me face to face with it. It had embarrassed me then, but it didn’t embarra

tle it was to Gravener I was now talking. “Do you say that becaus

his mother the widow of a sexton, but that has nothing

it an awful

— quite

’t it posit

Not to his magni

ent. “And is his magnificent v

king of his noble intellect. His vices, as you say, have been much ex

nt of

t of d

ecognise his

st social. So he leaves all his belongings to other people to take care of. He accepts favours, loans, sacrifices — all with nothing more deterrent than an agony of shame. Fortunately we’re a little faithful band, and we do what we can.” I held my tongue about the nat

uch do the

. They come, these mere exercises of genius, to a great sum total of poetry, of philosophy, a mighty mass of speculation

e, after all, at

t certainly as showy, as his talk. Moreover two-thirds of his work are merely colossal projects and announcements. ‘Showing’ Frank Saltram is often a poor business,

ld his talk j

My young lady looked not quite satisfied at this, but as I wasn’t prepared for another question I hastily pursued: “The sight of a great s

gham were almost the only thing Saltram’s treachery hadn’t extinguished. I went with her to the door of her carriage, out of which she

o come to the

n a day or two

week,” I suggested. “

he brougham started off, carrying her away too fast, fortu