Herries has to Musgrave all the interest of
a very delicate and beautiful type, whose fastidiousness he can
almost envy. As a rule, literary men will not discuss their art
among themselves; they have generally arrived at a sort of method
of their own, which may not be ideal, but which is the best
practical solution for themselves, and they would rather not be
disquieted about it; literary talk, too, tends to partake of the
nature of shop, and busy men, as a rule, like to talk the shop of
their recreations rather than the shop of their employment. But
Musgrave will discuss anything; and as for Herries, writing is not
an occupation, so much as a divine vocation which he regards with a
holy awe.
The discussion began at dinner, and I was amused to see how it
affected the two men. Musgrave, by an incredible mental agility,
contrived to continue to take a critical interest in the meal and
the argument at the same time; Herries thrust away an unfinished
plate, refused what was offered to him, pushed his glasses about as
if they were chessmen, filled the nearest with water at intervals--
he is a rigid teetotaller--and drank out of them alternately with
an abstracted air.
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