Transcribed from the 1903 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by DavidPrice, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
with illustrations by H. J. Ford
Second Impression
Longmans, Green, and Co.
39 Paternoster Row, London
New York and Bombay
1903
TO HERBERT HILLS, Esq.
These Studies
OF LIFE AND CHARACTER
ARE DEDICATED
It has been suggested to the Author that the incident of the Berbalangs,in The Adventure of the Fair American, is rather improbable. Hecan only refer the sceptical to the perfectly genuine authorities citedin his footnotes.
The scene was a dusky shabby little room in Ryder Street. Tosuch caves many repair whose days are passed, and whose food is consumed,in the clubs of the adjacent thoroughfare of cooperative palaces, PallMall. The furniture was battered and dingy; the sofa on whichLogan sprawled had a certain historic interest: it was covered withcloth of horsehair, now seldom found by the amateur. A bookcasewith glass doors held a crowd of books to which the amateur would atonce have flown. They were in ‘boards’ of faded blue,and the paper labels bore alluring names: they were all First Editionsof the most desirable kind. The bottles in the liqueur case wereantique; a coat of arms, not undistinguished, was in relief on the silverstoppers. But the liquors in the flasks were humble and conventional. Merton, the tenant of the rooms, was in a Zingari cricketing coat; heoccupied the arm-chair, while Logan, in evening dress, maintained adifficult equilibrium p. 2onthe slippery sofa. Both men were of an age between twenty-fiveand twenty-nine, both were pleasant to the eye. Merton was, ifanything, under the middle height: fair, slim, and active. Asa freshman he had coxed his College Eight, later he rowed Bow in thatvessel. He had won the Hurdles, but been beaten by his Cambridgeopponent; he had taken a fair second in Greats, was believed to havebeen ‘runner up’ for the Newdigate prize poem, and mighthave won other laurels, but that he was found to do the female partsvery fairly in the dramatic performances of the University, a thingirreconcilable with study. His father was a rural dean. Merton’s most obvious vice was a thirst for general information. ‘I know it is awfully bad form to know anything,’ he hadbeen heard to say, ‘but everyone has his failings, and mine isoccasionally useful.’
Logan was tall, dark, athletic and indolent. He was, in a way,the last of an historic Scottish family, and rather fond of discoursingon the ancestral traditions. But any satisfaction that he derivedfrom them was, so far, all that his birth had won for him. Hislittle patrimony had taken to itself wings. Merton was in no bettercase. Both, as they sat together, were gloomily discussing theirprospects.
In the penumbra of smoke, and the malignant light of an ill trimmedlamp, the Great Idea was to be evolved. What consequences hungon the Great Idea! The peace of families insured, at a triflingpremium. Innocence rescued. The defeat of the p. 3subtlestcriminal designers: undreamed of benefits to natural science! But I anticipate. We return to the conversation in the Ryder Streetden.
‘It is a case of emigration or the workhouse,’ said Logan.
‘Emigration! What can you or I do in the Colonies? They provide even their own ushers. My only available assets,a little Greek and less Latin, are drugs in the Melbourne market,’answered Merton; ‘they breed their own dominies. Protection!’
‘In America they might pay for lessons