But what drama can Price bring
about--he shuts himself up in a room and tries to write a play,' said
Phillips. 'I don't see how he can dramatise any life but his own.'
'All deviations from the normal tend to bring about drama,' said Harding.
'Then, why don't you do a Hubert Price in a book? It would be most
interesting. Do you think you ever will?'
'I don't think so.'
'Why not? Because he is a friend of yours, and you would not like----'
'I never allow my private life to interfere with my literature. No; for
quite other reasons. I admit that he represents physically and mentally a
great deal of the intellectual impotence current in our time. But it would
be difficult, I think, to bring vividly before the reader that tall, thin,
blonde man, with his pale gentle eyes and his insipid mind. I should take
quite a different kind of man as my model.'
'What kind of man?' said Phillips, and the five or six writers and painters
leaned forward to listen to Harding.
'I think I should imagine a man about the medium height. A nice figure,
light, trim, neat. Good-looking, straight nose, eyes bright and
intelligent. I think he would have beard, a very close-cut beard. The turn
of his mind would be metaphysical and poetic--an intense subtility of mind
combined with much order.
Pages:
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163