The Madisonian. (Virginia City, Mont.) 1873-1915, 1895-10-12

PingWill WQsa nuisance. He married
a respectable young woman of mature
years and lives on her sufficiency, and
he goes about pretending to be literary
character on the strength of al 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 gabble about books intellectual
conversation. He regards q quiet man
smoking in ID chair as fair game for his
scraps Of quotation-which no is as
eager to void dds 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 Il
pince nez, and Mrs. Pingwill, when
present, echoes al his quaverine seyeri-
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 Pinswill.
Heydinger was the chief e%ncourager
of Pingwill. He is a humOrist, a kind
OF person who ICES jokes il things that
u the passions Of ordinary people,
apd he found an unaccountable pleasure
i'll developing one particular aspect of
the Pingwill constitution. No retired
pork butchers lady, DO wife of a village
rector who has married beneath him,
could be more punctilious Of her in
timacy than Pingwill among his au-
ghors. And Pingwill was just as in
-tensely sensitive to the breath Of scan
dial, which in matters literary is called
criticism. No one could be thicker with
a really chic author; no Il reader to
"cut" the writer who fell under the
p; shadow Of adverse comment.
He was, in fact, a literary snob-a by
no means rare variety-and he had AL
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 ont
upon Kipling. In a careless moment he
had informed us that Kipling's style
was rough aud unfinished-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 Il review,
the mere name filled him with uncom-
Portable memories. 1t was rs if the
r%ector's wife had cut the duchess by
mistake. Horrible! Then he was pri-
vately in great trouble about Besant and
Hall Caine. Ought l to know Them
was the attitude. The oracles differed.
He was deliciously guarded upon these
authors under Heydinser's most search
ing questions, but his face flushed guilt.
lily. LIE Gallienne, Zangwill. and mos
Of the younger men, who have warn
friends and animated critics, bothered
him more or less, and he had IA horribl.
dread, l know, that Ruskin, whom h,
had committed himself to admire, wa
not quito all that he should be, "On'
has to be SO very particular, was Ping
wills attitude.
However, after awhile we tired @
this creatures odd way with books, an,
his proximity then became, as | say,
nuisance. But Heydinger, vino had form,
ed an adequate conception of MS char
acter, suggested the remedy, and togeth
er we routed him, Both Heydinser an,
I had got through Il mornings work
and in he came, fresh and freshly prim
ed. He dropped into a chair and emf,
ted some indifferent remarks.
Il have heard, he said, THAT tines
delicious child sketches of Kenneth Ora
ham . arc out III a book by themselves
"Read 'em? ?" said Hsydinger brutally
"No-hardiy-yet,' said NngwilI
"but they 10 good. aren t they.
"Very."said 1. but that's no reaso
why you should go about calling thei
delicious before You have read them. i"
Perhaps not" said Pingwill. Pc,
haps not"
"They remind no very much Of We,
die Hooper," said Heydinger. "Yo
know him, Bel,ows?'
ultimately. I said. II have one {
his first editions at home
"YGu Will % reminded very much {
Wendle Hooper" said Hsydinger. tu.i
ing to PiDgwiil
"iodeed4.'. said Pingwili. steppin
into tho trap
"Tbe sasn;a subtle suggestiveness {
phrase aaid H~eydingsr. 1.-The SAC
DELICATE got ~Ienesratin4 SymDathv.