Max Beerbohm

Enoch Soames Max Beerbohm

Book Excerpt: ...was out.""But you were in. You showed me some of your paintings, you know. I hear you're in Chelsea now.""Yes."I almost wondered that Mr. Soames did not, after this monosyllable, pass along. He stood patiently there, rather like a dumb animal, rather like a donkey looking over a gate. A sad figure, his. It occurred to me that "hungry" was perhaps the mot juste for him; but--hungry for what? He looked as if he had little appetite for anything. I was sorry for him; and Rothenstein, though he had not invited him to Chelsea, did ask him to sit down and have something to drink. Seated, he was more self-assertive. He flung back the wings of his cape with a gesture which, had not those wings been waterproof, might have seemed to hurl defiance at things in general. And he ordered an absinthe. "Je me tiens toujours fidele," he told Rothenstein, "a la sorciere glauque.""It is bad for you," said Rothenstein, dryly."Nothing is bad for one," answered Soames. "Dans ce monde il n'y a ni b..