Father Payne
FATHER PAYNE By Arthur Christopher Benson 1915 PREFACE Often as I have thought of my old friend "Father Payne," as we affectionately called him, I had somehow never intended to write about him, or if I did, it was "like as a dream when one awaketh," a vision that melted away at the touch of common life. Yet I always felt that his was one of those rich personalities well worth depicting, if the attitude and gesture with which he faced the world could be caught and fixed. The difficulty was that he was a man of ideas rather than of performance, suggestive rather than active: and the whole history of his experiment with life was evasive, and even to ordinary views fantastic.
Judith significantly.
"Help her to mine," responded Jane promptly. "She isn't far from my
size."
"But I wouldn't want to go galloping for nuts while you stay here
alone hunting for spooks," Judith said loyally. "Better let two
girls take our places if you insist on staying out."
"Oh, no, dear. I'm only going to look around for some sort of trap
entrance to Lenox. Besides, you know Dozia doesn't ride, and she'll
be here."
"All right, love, I'll leave you with Dozia if you insist. She's big
enough to take care of you at any rate. Do you imagine Miss Gifford
has materialized some domestic enemy in her change of staff? And
that this super-conscious fired janitor or furnace man is operating
against her?"
"I don't know, Judy," sighed Jane. "Looks to me more loosely
organized than that. Besides, even a fired furnace man would keep
union hours at one fifty per. No, I think you'll find the eternal
female back of that racket, it's too temperamental for masculine
action."
FATHER PAYNE By Arthur Christopher Benson 1915 PREFACE Often as I have thought of my old friend "Father Payne," as we affectionately called him, I had somehow never intended to write about him, or if I did, it was "like as a dream when one awaketh," a vision that melted away at the touch of common life. Yet I always felt that his was one of those rich personalities well worth depicting, if the attitude and gesture with which he faced the world could be caught and fixed. The difficulty was that he was a man of ideas rather than of performance, suggestive rather than active: and the whole history of his experiment with life was evasive, and even to ordinary views fantastic.