All Roads Lead to Calvary by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
page 27 of 333 (08%)
page 27 of 333 (08%)
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"Your friends, that you never had any. And your enemies, that they are
always the latest," she informed him. "You'll do," he answered with a laugh. "With nine men out of ten that speech would have ended your chances. You sized me up at a glance, and knew it would only interest me. And your instinct is right," he added. "What people are saying: always go straight for that." He gave her a commission then and there for a heart to heart talk with a gentleman whom the editor of the Home News Department of the _Daily Dispatch_ would have referred to as a "Leading Literary Luminary," and who had just invented a new world in two volumes. She had asked him childish questions and had listened with wide-open eyes while he, sitting over against her, and smiling benevolently, had laid bare to her all the seeming intricacies of creation, and had explained to her in simple language the necessary alterations and improvements he was hoping to bring about in human nature. He had the sensation that his hair must be standing on end the next morning after having read in cold print what he had said. Expanding oneself before the admiring gaze of innocent simplicity and addressing the easily amused ear of an unsympathetic public are not the same thing. He ought to have thought of that. It consoled him, later, that he was not the only victim. The _Daily Dispatch_ became famous for its piquant interviews; especially with elderly celebrities of the masculine gender. "It's dirty work," Flossie confided one day to Madge Singleton. "I trade on my silly face. Don't see that I'm much different to any of these poor devils." They were walking home in the evening from a theatre. "If I hadn't been stony broke I'd never have taken it up. I shall get out of |
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