A GREAT MAN
A FROLIC
BY
ARNOLD BENNETT
AUTHOR OF 'THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL,' 'ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS,' 'LEONORA,' ETC.
[Illustration]
LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS
1904
TO
MY DEAR FRIEND
FREDERICK MARRIOTT
AND TO
THE IMPERISHABLE MEMORY
OF
OLD TIMES
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. HIS BIRTH 1
II. TOM 8
III. HIS CHRISTENING 17
IV. AGED TWELVE 26
V. MARRONS GLACES 36
VI. A CALAMITY FOR THE SCHOOL 49
VII. CONTAGIOUS 58
VIII. CREATIVE 72
IX. SPRING ONIONS 85
X. MARK SNYDER 95
XI. SATIN 105
XII. HIS FAME 117
XIII. A LION IN HIS LAIR 135
XIV. HER NAME WAS GERALDINE 148
XV. HIS TERRIBLE QUANDARY 161
XVI. DURING THE TEA-MEETING 169
XVII. A NOVELIST IN A BOX 181
XVIII. HIS JACK-HORNERISM 195
XIX. HE JUSTIFIES HIS FATHER 201
XX. PRESS AND PUBLIC 215
XXI. PLAYING THE NEW GAME 226
XXII. HE LEARNS MORE ABOUT WOMEN 239
XXIII. SEPARATION 249
XXIV. COSETTE 256
XXV. THE RAKE'S PROGRESS 273
XXVI. THE NEW LIFE 289
XXVII. HE IS NOT NERVOUS 308
XXVIII. HE SHORTENS HIS NAME 325
XXIX. THE PRESIDENT 337
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Great Man by Arnold Bennett
- 2: And Pro Bono Publico especially Pro Bono Publico
- 3: Quain Short happened to live in Bury Street
- 4: Quain Short was supposed to be hard behind
- 5: ''Doesn't Aunt Susan want another one
- 6: Up came another tall gentleman
- 7: Knight began suavely to explain
- 8: Yet the baby stirred and mewed faintly
- 9: And then the cradle toppled over
- 10: ' These performances were astounding
- 11: 'Had you forgotten it was your birthday
- 12: Authorities differed upon the cause of the ailment
- 13: Knight wished Tom to go into the drapery
- 14: 'Tom always called Henry his 'bold buccaneer
- 15: The marrons glaces were arranged neatly in a beautiful box
- 16: 'But can I have my birthday pudding for supper
- 17: 'Give him some Seigel by all means
- 18: Knight had said to the two women in a formidable tone
- 19: ' Aunt Annie dismissed her frigidly
- 20: Instead of going into logarithms
- 21: Within the frontiers of Wesleyan Methodism
- 22: Aunt Annie saw that his eyes were running
- 23: ' Henry repeated questioningly
- 24: Knight and Aunt Annie made measles august
- 25: And some mince tarts on a plate
- 26: And the other the life of Enid
- 27: Enid forgave and accepted Adrian
- 28: Henry carefully ignited the sulphur
- 29: And Aunt Annie did Love in Babylon up in a neat parcel
- 30: 'Sarah drove dashingly up to the door in a hansom
- 31: The driver of the hansom did his best
- 32: An arrow with the legend 'Mark Snyder
- 33: Snyder sniffed the air yet again
- 34: Snyder stuck the revolver into a drawer
- 35: Mark Snyder had indeed discouraged him
- 36: Onions Winter picked up Love in Babylon
- 37: That's what they'll be bibelots
- 38: Onions Winter's advertisements 'Onions Winter
- 39: The thought of the immense success of Love in Babylon
- 40: And then Miss Foster tripped in
- 41: ' Foxall sang out from the passage
- 42: Mawner enveloped the pair in her sinister glance
- 43: There was something about that bodice
- 44: ' Aunt Annie enjoined the girl when Mrs
- 45: With the kettles and the large saucepan
- 46: Aunt Annie did not give herself away
- 47: The author of Love in Babylon
- 48: Henry and Aunt Annie exchanged glances
- 49: And he said to himself 'It's exactly like Snyder
- 50: ' Snyder fingered the piracies
- 51: Snyder took such trifles for granted
- 52: And left the lift to the liftman
- 53: The crusade against Confucius not excepted
- 54: The letter was from Mark Snyder
- 55: The commissionaire of the Louvre
- 56: The Louvre had a good Romanee Conti
- 57: Now Geraldine reversed all that
- 58: I was just hoping you'd say the Alhambra
- 59: When Pauletti had performed two other violent dramas
- 60: As Toscato could speak no English
- 61: While Toscato set the box to rights
- 62: ' said Geraldine enthusiastically
- 63: ' This telegram puzzled everybody
- 64: Onions Winter's mercantile sagacity
- 65: Mark Snyder said 'Keep yourself to yourself
- 66: Geraldine intended to be sisterly
- 67: Snyder expansively and gaily welcomed him
- 68: Ashton Portway was presently sniggering
- 69: ' Here Foxall glanced mischievously at the clock
- 70: Forty thousand copies of A Question of Cubits No
- 71: Heeley entered what he called his private boudoir
- 72: It was simply a question of cubits
- 73: And Macalistairs were to have the world's rights of the book
- 74: Portway was rich in money and in his wife
- 75: 'I must introduce you to Miss Marchrose
- 76: Ashton Portway said that she did mean 'Characters
- 77: 'Miss Marchrose glanced at Mrs
- 78: 'I'm Gerald in A Question of Cubits
- 79: Good bye the natural course of events
- 80: And was confronted by a footman
- 81: Simply one of Cousin Tom's jokes
- 82: One afternoon he had escorted Tom to Chenies Street
- 83: ' said Geraldine with a firm accent
- 84: Cosette was tall and slim and dark
- 85: But Cosette knew better than that
- 86: Cosette herself being the exterminator
- 87: Mimisse partook of everything except wine
- 88: So Henry went forth with Mimisse at the end of a strap
- 89: For some minutes Henry watched a roulette table
- 90: And precisely as the croupier was saying sternly
- 91: The croupier addressed him sharply
- 92: Cosette had come to Monte Carlo
- 93: Cosette announced that she must visit Loulou
- 94: Much had happened since Cosette
- 95: Suggested by Sir Hugh Macalistair himself
- 96: And Geraldine did as she liked with Henry
- 97: ' Geraldine murmured when Doxey had gone
- 98: ' Geraldine endeavoured to cheer them
- 99: 'Won't you have a marron glace
- 100: And in the early June dawn Henry awoke
- 101: 'Didn't Doxey say that you had written other things
- 102: John Pilgrim had found her somewhere
- 103: Doxey appeared to enjoy the existence
- 104: Geraldine drove to the theatre
- 105: Under the traction of the breathless doorkeeper
- 106: ' said Doxey 'we must adapt The Plague Spot
- 107: That Doxey should pass out of his life
- 108: But whenever John Pilgrim came to a long speech by Hubert
- 109: That journalist was Alfred Doxey
- 110: Shakspere Knight's 'charming twins
- 111: And with Geraldine and the twins