Part 59 (2/2)
Everyyou like-- only sing”
”I wanted to have a talk,” re of the difference between ht, though it never struck ht be worth coht it into my mind Here it is”--he hesitated a moment, then went on, with a certain constraint in his voice; the constraint we are apt to feel when forced to plump out the word 'love,' in its narrower sense--”When women love, they don't knohy they love; they just love because they do--so they say, and we're bound to believe the ht to know Do we love a woman for her beauty?-- or for her virtues?--or for her accomplishments?--or for what? I fancy, if we understood ourselves, we should be able to say we loved her for soht say--Oh, you know! What quality is it, then, that we love a woman for? There's a problem for you!”
”I can solve it with mathematical certainty, Alf--that is to say, in such aotherwise than according to s in my own circuitous hich is seldoical philosophy which the commission ofBut you have to sing six songs first I'll leave the choice of them to yourself”
”Very well,” replied Alf readily ”I'll sing the songs as they come to my mind Remember your promise, now”
Then, rich, soft, and sweet, rose that exquisite voice in easy volu old familiar verses Here was my opportunity I was interested in this boundaryAlf Jones as an assu already, by a kind of incommunicable intuition, that he was a Sydney-sider, and had been in some way connected with the drapery-business, I expected to have s, that--counting reasonably on a little further inforathered before raphy at least as correctly as biographies are generally worked-out
For the esoteric side of his history, I counted s Man is but a lyre (in both senses of the phonetically-taken word, unfortunately); and so hope, is the plectrum which strikes the passive chords
An old truism will bear expansion here, till it e, he always sings himself But you must kno to interpret
I have said thatFused with this, and deeply coloured by it, the tendency of his songs was toward love, and love alone--chaste, supersensuous, but purely huestion of national inspiration; no broad human sympathies; no echo of the oppressed ones' cry; no stern challenge of wrong; only a hopeless, undying love, and an unspeakable self-pity He wasn't even a lyre; he was a pipe for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she pleased; and, judging fros, it had pleased that irresponsible Goddess to attune the chords of his being to a love, pure as heaven, sad as earth, and hopeless as the other place
Who is she? thought I
Silence again sank on the faint yellow la diedHero Sleeps' Then the boundary rider lit his pipe, and slightlyattitude, with his elbow on the table, and his hand across his face
”Alf,” said I impressively; ”you'll certainly find yourself shot into outer darkness, if you don't alter your hand You're recklessly transgressing the lesson set forth in the parable of the Talents Don't you know it's wrong to bury yourself here, eating your own life aith ifted as you are? Maestros, and highclass critics, and other unwholesoht possibly sit on you, or damn you with faint praise; but you could afford to take chance of that, for beyond all doubt, theat the business aspect of the thing; I' influence you would exercise, and the happiness you would confer, and, altogether, of the unood that would lie to your credit, if you made the intended use of your Lord'sit in the earth”
”O, I would n't be here, I suppose, only for the disfigure a sob
”That's nothing,” I interjected, deeply pained by his allusion, and inwardly soliciting forgiveness without repentance whilst I spoke ”Did the British think less of Nelson--Did Lady Hamilton think less of him, if it comes to that--for the loss of his arm and his eye? Why, even the conceited German students value scars on the face more than academic honours Believe me, Alf, while a man merely conducts hiht; but if he's an artist, as you are, what hest claim to respect and sys, for that's just where we have the advantage of women 'A woman's first duty,' says the proverb, 'is to be beautiful' If Lady Hamilton had been minus an eye and an arm, she would scarcely have attained her unfortunate celebrity”
The boundary man laid down his pipe, rested his forehead on his arm upon the table, and for a minute or two sobbed like a child It was dreadful to see hiue, passing ated sentence on some well-connected criminal
Presently he rose, and walked unsteadily to the other end of the hut; his dog, with a low, pathetic whine, following hiain, I turned up the fla the effect of the ht
”Are you not well, Alf? ”
No answer He was lying on his back on the bed, one ar, crouched at the bedside, was silently licking the brown fingers Then my eye happened to fall on the American clock over the fire-place Not that time, surely!
But my watch had beaten the clock by ten ise for keeping you up till this time
It's half-past eleven”
Still no answer I brought in an to spread it on the floor Alf had risen, and rolled his blankets back off the bed
He now took out the rass, and laid it on the floor, then re-arranged his blankets
”But I certainly won't rob you of your tick,” said I ”One characteristic of childhood I still retain is the ability to sleep anywhere, like a dog”
”You must take it, if you sleep in this hut,” he replied curtly
”Take that too” He handed hts?” I asked ”Because, if you do, I'll chain Pup to the fence He likes to go in and out at his own pleasure; and, if he found hiet lost”
”It can stay open to-night,” replied Alf
”Right,” said I; and I began to disrobe, as I always do when circu with your clothes on is slovenly; sleeping with your spurs on is, in addition, ruinously destructive to even the strongest bed-clothes