La
Touche's earlier life. In our previous interviews, Salemina's
presence had always precluded the possibility of leading the
conversation in the wished-for direction.
When I first saw Gerald La Touche I felt that he required
explanation. Usually speaking, a human being ought to be able, in
an evening's conversation, to explain himself, without any
adventitious aid. If he is a man, alive, vigorous, well poised,
conscious of his own individuality, he shows you, without any
effort, as much of his past as you need to form your impression, and
as much of his future as you have intuition to read. As opposed to
the vigorous personality, there is the colourless, flavourless,
insubstantial sort, forgotten as soon as learned, and for ever
confused with that of the previous or the next comer. When I was a
beginner in portrait-painting, I remember that, after I had
succeeded in making my background stay back where it belonged, my
figure sometimes had a way of clinging to it in a kind of smudgy
weakness, as if it were afraid to come out like a man and stand the
inspection of my eye. How often have I squandered paint upon the
ungrateful object without adding a cubit to its stature! It refused
to look like flesh and blood, but resembled rather some half-made
creature flung on the passive canvas in a liquid state, with its
edges running over into the background. There are a good many of
these people in literature, too,--heroes who, like home-made paper
dolls, do not stand up well; or if they manage to perform that feat,
one unexpectedly discovers, when they are placed in a strong light,
that they have no vital organs whatever, and can be seen through
without the slightest difficulty.
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