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Zuleika Dobson; Or, An Oxford Love Story
·
Sir Max Beerbohm
243
XX
Artistically,
there
is
a
good
deal
to
be
said
for
that
old
Greek
friend
of
ours,
the
Messenger;
and
I
dare
say
you
blame
me
for
having,
as
it
were,
made
you
an
eye-witness
of
the
death
of
the
undergraduates,
when
I
might
so
easily
have
brought
some
one
in
to
tell
you
about
it
after
it
was
all
over...
Some
one?
Whom?
Are
you
not
begging
the
question?
I
admit
there
were,
that
evening
in
Oxford,
many
people
who,
when
they
went
home
from
the
river,
gave
vivid
reports
of
what
they
had
seen.
But
among
them
was
none
who
had
seen
more
than
a
small
portion
of
the
whole
affair.
Certainly,
I
might
have
pieced
together
a
dozen
of
the
various
accounts,
and
put
them
all
into
the
mouth
of
one
person.
But
credibility
is
not
enough
for
Clio’s
servant.
I
aim
at
truth.
And
so,
as
I
by
my
Zeus-given
incorporeity
was
the
one
person
who
had
a
good
view
of
the
scene
at
large,
you
must
pardon
me
for
having
withheld
the
veil
of
indirect
narration.
“Too
late,”
you
will
say
if
I
offer
you
a
Messenger
now.
But
it
was
not
thus
that
Mrs.
Batch
and
Katie
greeted
Clarence
when,
lamentably
soaked
with
rain,
that
Messenger
appeared
on
the
threshold
of
the
kitchen.
Katie
was
laying
the
table-cloth
for
seven
o’clock
supper.
Neither
she
nor
her
mother
was
clairvoyante.
Neither
of
them
knew
what
had
been
happening.
But,
as
Clarence
had
not
come
home
since
afternoon-school,
they
had
assumed
that
he
was
at
the
river;
and
they
now
assumed
from
the
look
of
him
that
something
very
unusual
had
been
happening
there.
As
to
what
this
was,
they
were
not
quickly
enlightened.
Our
old
Greek
friend,
after
a
run
of
twenty
miles,
would
always
reel
off
a
round
hundred
of
graphic
verses
unimpeachable
in
scansion.
Clarence
was
of
degenerate
mould.
He
collapsed
on
to
a
chair,
and
sat
there
gasping;
and
his
recovery
was
rather
delayed
than
hastened
by
his
mother,
who,
in
her
solicitude,
patted
him
vigorously
between
the
shoulders.
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