unearths some literary gems.
[This was the last Hichens in my queue--yet another study of characters who cultivate silly behavior for its own sake. Where "Berkeley Square" was delightfully lighthearted and "Carnation" was calculatingly cynical, this novelette was ultimately sad and depressing. But snippets, hey, I'll take 'em. (:v>]
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While Mr. Lane hunted adjectives, and ran sad-sounding and damnatory substantives to earth...
***
“I wonder whether the supremacy of Eustace Lane is moral, or intellectual, or—neither?” said Winifred. “There are so many different supremacies, aren’t there? I suppose a man might be supreme merely as a—as a—well, an absurdity, you know.”
Jenny smiled the watery smile of the sentimentalist; a glass of still lemonade washed with limelight might resemble it.
***
The newspapers occasionally mentioned him as a dandy, a fop, a whimsical, irresponsible creature, yet one whose vagaries were not entirely without interest. He had performed some extravagant antic in a cotillon, or worn some extraordinary coat. He had invented a new way of walking one season....
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He soon began...to reduce buffoonery to a modern science.
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In fact, they supposed he must be a genius because he was erratic. Many people are of the same opinion, and declare that a goose standing on its head must be a swan.
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What is a modern smart wedding but a second-rate pantomime?
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Kite-flying in London seemed an odd notion. Was it lively and entertaining, or merely silly? Which ought it to be?
***
