United States or Zimbabwe ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
No doubt about it, I said. 'I know the Nawab well, the young scoundrel. How dignified he looks! There was a note of real sorrow in Kauffer's voice. 'Dignified? Oh, yes; dignified, but, you observe, also black. The Nawab will not be painted black. At once it is on my hands. 'But he is black, I remonstrated. 'He's the darkest native I've ever seen among the nobility. 'No matter for that.
'Why should there be any objection? I demanded, slightly nettled. 'People must see them before they buy them. 'Buy them! Kauffer's tone was distinctly exasperated. 'Who will buy these pictures? Nobody. They are all, every one of them to REfuse. 'If you know Mr. Armour well enough, I said, 'you should advise him to exhibit some of his local studies and sketches here. They might sell better.
Most unwillingly I turned one morning into Kauffer's; and I can not now imagine why I did it, for emulation of the Assistant Adjutant-General was really not motive enough, unless it was with an instinct prepared to stumble upon matter germane in an absurd degree to this little history. I had the honour to be subjected to the searching analysis of Mr. Kauffer himself.
He mentioned to me that Kauffer had been asked for his address who could it possibly be? and looked so damped by my humourous suggestion that it was a friend of Kauffer's in some other line who wanted a bill paid, that I felt I had been guilty of brutality. And all the while the quality of his wonderful output never changed or abated. Pure and firm and prismatic it remained.
'No, no really. I disliked his not knowing it was known rien de plus, she said lightly. 'What did he say? 'Oh, not much. What should he say? 'He might have expressed a decent regret on poor Kauffer's account, I growled. Dora did not reply, and a glance showed her frowning. 'I believe he apologized! I cried, pushing, as it were, my advantage. 'He explained. 'Oh!
'I think, Dora said as I went away, 'that you had better go up to the studio and tell him what you have told me. Perhaps it doesn't matter much, but I can't bear the thought of his not knowing. 'Come to Kauffer's in the morning and see the pictures, I urged; but she turned away, 'Oh, not with you. I found my way almost at once to Amy Villa, not only because I had been told to go there.
It was the last day of Kauffer's contract; and besides, all the world, secretaries, establishments, hill captains, grass widows, shops, and sundries, was trundling down the hill. I came to ask my young friend what he meant to do. 'Do? he cried. 'Why, eat, drink, and be merry! Kauffer has paid up, and his yoke is at the bottom of the sea. Come back and dine with me!
Armour told me himself that Kauffer's attitude had become almost conciliatory, that Kauffer had even hinted at the acceptance of, and adhesion to, certain principles which he would lay down as the basis of another year's contract. In talking to me about it, Armour dwelt on these absurd stipulations only as the reason why any idea of renewal was impossible.
It was part, no doubt, of his absolutely uncommercial nature we had experienced together passages of the keenest embarrassment over my purchase of some of his studies that he had not mentioned these more serious things exposed at Kauffer's; one had the feeling of coming unexpectedly on treasure left upon the wayside and forgotten. 'Hullo! I said, at a standstill, 'I see you've got some of Mr.
Word Of The Day