'I quite regret you were not with us yesterday,' said Mr Henry Gowan,
calling on Clennam the next morning. 'We had an agreeable day up the
river there.' So he had heard, Arthur said.
'From your partner?' returned Henry Gowan. 'What a dear old fellow he
is!' 'I have a great regard for him.' '
By Jove, he is the finest creature!' said Gowan.'So fresh, so green,
trusts in such wonderful things!'
Here was one of the many little rough points that had a tendency to
grate on Clennam's hearing. He put it aside by merely repeating that he
had a high regard for Mr Doyce.
'He is charming! To see him mooning along to that time of life,
laying down nothing by the way and picking up nothing by the way, is
delightful. It warms a man. So unspoilt, so simple, such a good soul!
Upon my life Mr Clennam, one feels desperately worldly and wicked in
comparison with such an innocent creature. I speak for myself, let me
add, without including you. You are genuine also.'
'Thank you for the compliment,' said Clennam, ill at ease; 'you are too,
I hope?' 'So so,' rejoined the other. 'To be candid with you, tolerably. I am
not a great impostor. Buy one of my pictures, and I assure you,
in confidence, it will not be worth the money. Buy one of another
man's--any great professor who beats me hollow--and the chances are that
the more you give him, the more he'll impose upon you. They all do it.'
'All painters?' 'Painters, writers, patriots, all the rest who have stands in the
market. Give almost any man I know ten pounds, and he will impose upon
you to a corresponding extent; a thousand pounds--to a corresponding
extent; ten thousand pounds--to a corresponding extent. So great the
success, so great the imposition. But what a capital world it is!' cried
Gowan with warm enthusiasm. 'What a jolly, excellent, lovable world it
is!' 'I had rather thought,' said Clennam, 'that the principle you mention
was chiefly acted on by--'
'By the Barnacles?' interrupted Gowan, laughing.
'By the political gentlemen who condescend to keep the Circumlocution
Office.' 'Ah! Don't be hard upon the Barnacles,' said Gowan, laughing afresh,
'they are darling fellows! Even poor little Clarence, the born idiot of
the family, is the most agreeable and most endearing blockhead! And by
Jupiter, with a kind of cleverness in him too that would astonish you!'
'It would. Very much,' said Clennam, drily.