The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays

Front Cover
William Heinemann, 1912 - English essays - 278 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 19 - I cannot forget that day on which I had occasion to say to him: 'Mr. Gessler, that last pair of town walkingboots creaked, you know.' He looked at me for a time without replying, as if expecting me to withdraw or qualify the statement, then said: 'Id shouldn'd 'ave greaked.' 'It did, I'm afraid.' 'You goddem wed before dey found demselves?' 'I don't think so.' At that he lowered his eyes, as if hunting for memory of those boots, and I felt sorry I had mentioned this grave thing. 'Zend dem back !'...
Page 23 - I've been wearing this pair nearly all the time I've been abroad; and they're not half worn out, are they?" He looked long at my boots — a pair of Russia leather,, and his face seemed to regain steadiness. Putting his hand on my instep, he said: "Do dey vid you here? I 'ad drouble wid dat bair, I remember." I assured him that they had fitted beautifully. "Do you wand any boods ?" he said. "I can make dem quickly; id is a slack dime.
Page 20 - But his face and voice made so deep impression that during the next few minutes I ordered many pairs. Nemesis fell! They lasted more terribly than ever. And I was not able conscientiously to go to him for nearly two years. When at last I went I was surprised to find that outside one of the two little windows of his shop another name was painted, also that of a bootmaker — making, of course, for the Royal Family. The old familiar boots, no longer in dignified isolation, were huddled in the single...
Page 14 - I KNEW him from the days of my extreme youth, because he made my father's boots; inhabiting . with his elder brother two little shops let into one, in a small by-street — now no more, but then most fashionably placed in the West End. That tenement had a certain quiet distinction; there was no sign upon its face that he made for any of the Royal Family — merely his own German name of Gessler Brothers; and in the window a few pairs of boots. I remember...
Page 193 - The plot! A good plot is that sure edifice which slowly rises out of the interplay of circumstance on temperament, and temperament on circumstance, within the enclosing atmosphere of an idea.
Page 15 - ... sooty glow, as if, though new, they had been worn a hundred years. Those pairs could only have been made by one who saw before him the Soul of Boot — so truly were they prototypes incarnating the very spirit of all foot-gear. These thoughts, of course, came to me later, though even when I was promoted to him, at the age of perhaps fourteen, some inkling haunted me of the dignity of himself and brother. For to make boots — such boots as he made — seemed to me then, and still seems to me,...
Page 198 - Flavour, in fine, is the spirit of the dramatist projected into his work in a state of volatility, so that no one can exactly lay hands on it, here, there, or anywhere. This distinctive essence of a play, marking its brand, is the one thing at which the dramatist cannot work, for it is outside his consciousness. A man may have many moods, he has but one spirit; and this spirit he communicates in some subtle, unconscious way to all his work. It waxes and wanes with the currents of his vitality, but...
Page 21 - Oh! well, I can't leave the old boy — so here goes! Perhaps it'll be his elder brother!" For his elder brother, I knew, had not character enough to reproach me, even dumbly. And, to my relief, in the shop there did appear to be his elder brother, handling a piece of leather. "Well, Mr. Gessler," I said, "how are you?" He came close, and peered at me. "I am breddy well," he said slowly, "but my elder brudder is dead.
Page 17 - ... formed the shop, there would be seen his face, or that of his elder brother, peering down. A guttural sound, and the tip-tap of bast slippers beating the narrow wooden stairs, and he would stand before one without coat, a little bent, in leather apron, with sleeves turned back, blinking — as if awakened from some dream of boots, or like an owl surprised in daylight and annoyed at this interruption. And I would say: "How do you do, Mr. Gessler? Could you make me a pair of Russia leather boots?
Page 17 - Without a word he would leave me, retiring whence he came, or into the other portion of the shop, and I would continue to rest in the wooden chair, inhaling the incense of his trade. Soon he would come back, holding in his thin, veined hand a piece of gold-brown leather. With eyes fixed on it, he would remark: "What a beaudiful biece!" When I, too, had admired it, he would speak again. "When do you wand dem?" And I would answer: "Oh ! As soon as you conveniently can.

Bibliographic information