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The Master Mummer By: Edward Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) |
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By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM Author of "Anna, the Adventuress," "A Prince of Sinners,"
"The Betrayal," Etc.
WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York Copyright , 1904,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. All rights reserved
[Illustration: "Let the boy have his chance," said Allan.]
The Master Mummer
Book I
CHAPTER I
Sheets of virgin manuscript paper littered my desk, the smoke of much
uselessly consumed tobacco hung about the room in a little cloud. Many a
time I had dipped my pen in the ink, only to find myself a few minutes
later scrawling ridiculous little figures upon the margin of my
blotting pad. It was not at all an auspicious start for one who sought
immortality. There came a growl presently from the other side of the room, where
Mabane, attired in a disreputable smock, with a short black pipe in the
corner of his mouth, was industriously defacing a small canvas. Mabane
was tall and fair and lean, with a mass of refractory hair which was the
despair of his barber; a Scotchman with keen blue eyes, and humorous
mouth amply redeeming his face from the plainness which would otherwise
have been its lot. He also was in search of immortality. "Make a start for Heaven's sake, Arnold," he implored. "To look at you
is an incitement to laziness. The world's full of things to write about.
Make a choice and have done with it. Write something, even if you have
to tear it up afterwards." I turned round in my chair and regarded Mabane reproachfully. "Get on with your pot boiler, and leave me alone, Allan," I said. "You
do not understand my difficulties in the least. It is simply a matter of
selection. My brain is full of ideas brimming over. I want to be sure
that I am choosing the best." There came to me from across the room a grunt of contempt. "Pot boiler indeed! What about short stories at ten guineas a time, must
begin in the middle, scented and padded to order, Anthony Hopeish, with
the sugar of Austin Dobson and the pepper of Kipling shaken on ad
lib. ? Man alive, do you know what pot boilers are? It's a perfect
conservatory you're living in. Got any tobacco, Arnold?" I jerked my pouch across the room, and it was caught with a deft little
backward swing of the hand. Allan Mabane was an M.C.C. man, and a
favourite point with his captain. "You've got me on the hip, Allan," I answered, rising suddenly from my
chair and walking restlessly up and down the large bare room. "The devil
himself might have put those words into your mouth. They are
pot boilers, every one of them, and I am sick of it. I want to do
something altogether different. I am sure that I can, but I have got
into the way of writing those other things, and I can't get out of it.
That is why I am sitting here like an owl." Mabane refilled his pipe and smoked contentedly. "I know exactly how you're feeling, old chap," he said sympathetically.
"I get a dash of the same thing sometimes generally in the springtime.
It begins with a sort of wistfulness, a sense of expansion follows, you
go about all the time with your head in the clouds. You want to collect
all the beautiful things in life and express them. Oh, I know all about
it. It generally means a girl. Where were you last night?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Where I shall be to night, to morrow night where I was a year ago.
That is the trouble of it all. One is always in the same place." He shook his head. "It is a very bad attack," he said. "Your generalities may be all right,
but they are not convincing." "I have not spoken a word to a woman, except to Mrs. Burdett, for a week
or more," I declared. Mabane resumed his work. Such a discussion, his gesture seemed to
indicate, was not worth continuing. But I continued, following out my
train of thought, though I spoke as much to myself as to my friend. "You are right about my stories," I admitted... Continue reading book >>
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Literature |
Mystery |
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