The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1895-10-11
ROUTED.

Pingwill was nuisance. He married
a respectable young woman Of mature
years and lives on her sufficiency, and
he goes about pretending to be a literary
character on the strength of an edition
of a classic, an examination success at
some university place or other, and oc-
casional reviewing. He likes to talk
about books and is Extensively familiar
with all the master pieces and most Of
the rest of English literature. He con-
siders gable about books intellectual
conversation. He regards a quiet man
smoking in chair as fair game for his
scraps of quotation-which he is as
eager to void as he is greedy to acquire
and he cannot understand that people
who write books never read them and
are full of bitter memories of their own
adventures in authorship. He wears a
pince nez, and Mrs. Pingwill, when
present, echoes all his quavering severi
ties with the explanation that George
is so satirical" " He is exasperatingly
reliable in the matter of names and
dates, and at first, perhaps, we made
the mistake of encouraging Pingwill.
Heydinger was the chief encourager
Of Pingwill. He is q humorist, kind
of person who sees jokes in things that
rouse the passions of ordinary people,
and he found an unaccountable pleasure
in developing one particular aspect of
the Pingwill constitution. No retired
pork butchers lady, no wife of a village
rector who has married beneath him,
could be more punctilious Of her in
timacy than Pingwill among his au-
thors. And Pingwill was just as in
tensely sensitive to the breath Of scan
dal, which in matters literary is called
criticism. No one could be thicker with
a really chic author; no one reader to
"cut" the writer who fell under the
shadow of adverse comment.
He was, in fact, literary snob-a by
no means rare variety-and he had an
almost passionate dread of admiring the
wrong man. He took reviews in the
weeklies quite seriously, Naturally he
had nothing but serene contempt for
Dickens and Jerome and Mark Twain,
and people of that stamp" And Hey
dinger never tired of drawing him out
upon Kipling. In careless moment he
had informed us that Kipling's style
was rough and unfnished-it seems he
tried for once to form a judgment for
himself and had happened upon really
quite vulgar and coarse expressions. Aft
er he had learned better from a review,
the mere name filled him with uncom-
Portable memories. 1t was as if the
rector's wife had cut the duchess by
mistake. Horrible! Then he was pri-
vately in great trouble about Besant and
Hall Caine. "Ought to know them?"
was the attitude. The oracles differed.
He was deliciously guarded upon these
authors under Heydinger's most search
ing questions, but his face flushed guilt
lily. LIE Gallienne, Zangwill, and most
of the younger men, who have warm
friends and animated critics, bothered
him more or less, and he had horrible
dread, know, that Ruskin, whom he
had committed himself to admire, was
not quite all that he should be. "One
has to be so very particular, twas Ping
Wills attitude.
However, after awhile we tired Of
this creatures odd way with books, and
his proximity then became, as I say, a
nuisance But Heydinger, who had form
ed an adequate conception of his char
acter, suggested the remedy, and togeth-
er we routed him. Both Heydinger and
I had got through a mornings work,
and in he came, fresh and freshly prim-
ed, He dropped into chair and emit
ted some indifferent remarks.
81 have heard" he said, "that these
delicious child sketches of Kenneth Gra-
ham S are out in book by themselves. "
"Read 'em?" said Heydinger brutally
"No-hardly-yet," said Pingwill,
"but they're good, aren't they?"
"Very," said I, "but that no reason
why you should go about calling them
delicious before you have read them"
perhaps not,' ssia Pingwill. per
haps not
"They remind me very much of Wen
die Hooper," said Heydinger "You
know him, Bellows?"
Intimately" said. 81 have one of
his first editions at home"
"You will be reminded very much of
Wendle Hooper," said Heydinger, turn
ing to Pingwill
"Indeed!" said Pingwill, stepping
into the trap.
1.-THE same subtle suggestiyeness of
phrase" said Heydinger. "The same
delicate yet penetrating sympathy"
II must certainly read them," said
FingWill, evidently searching his mind
for the nam6 of Wendle Hooper and
flushing slightly.
81 know of no man" said Heydin-
ger, "except, perhaps, Liant, who comes
so near to Hooper as Graham. You know
Lant's style. Pingwill?"
Pingwill flushed little deeper, and
his ears grew pink 81 can't say,H said
he, "that I've Iead"-
Hes not so well known as Hooper" "
I admitted. HE was in the little set
that clustered round Leigh Hunt
Pingwiil suddenly felt hotter again
II think Leigh Hunt"- he began, eyt-
IDENTIFY ready with a fragment of toxt-
book.
HE borrowed from Liant" interrupt-