The Dark Flower by John Galsworthy
page 3 of 285 (01%)
page 3 of 285 (01%)
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a soul, and not only being just fit for people to eat or drive or make
houses of. If only the Art School would let him model things 'on his own,' instead of copying and copying--it was just as if they imagined it would be dangerous to let you think out anything for yourself! He held the tortoise to his waistcoat, and let it crawl, till, noticing that it was gnawing the corner of his essay, he put it back into his pocket. What would his tutor do if he were to know it was there?--cock his head a little to one side, and say: "Ah! there are things, Lennan, not dreamed of in my philosophy!" Yes, there were a good many not dreamed of by 'old Stormer,' who seemed so awfully afraid of anything that wasn't usual; who seemed always laughing at you, for fear that you should laugh at him. There were lots of people in Oxford like that. It was stupid. You couldn't do anything decent if you were afraid of being laughed at! Mrs. Stormer wasn't like that; she did things because--they came into her head. But then, of course, she was Austrian, not English, and ever so much younger than old Stormer. And having reached the door of his tutor's house, he rang the bell.... II When Anna Stormer came into the study she found her husband standing at the window with his head a little on one side--a tall, long-legged figure in clothes of a pleasant tweed, and wearing a low turn-over collar (not common in those days) and a blue silk tie, which she had knitted, strung through a ring. He was humming and gently tapping the window-pane with his well-kept finger-nails. Though celebrated for the |
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