| 339 | 340 | 341 | 342 | 343 |
| 1 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 |
|
His cue, which was to perfect an imitation of myself, lay both in words
and in actions; and most admirably did he play his part. My dress it
was an easy matter to copy; my gait and general manner were, without
difficulty, appropriated; in spite of his constitutional defect, even my
voice did not escape him. My louder tones were, of course, unattempted,
but then the key, it was identical; and his singular whisper, it grew
the very echo of my own.
How greatly this most exquisite portraiture harassed me, (for it could
not justly be termed a caricature,) I will not now venture to describe.
I had but one consolation--in the fact that the imitation, apparently,
was noticed by myself alone, and that I had to endure only the knowing
and strangely sarcastic smiles of my namesake himself. Satisfied with
having produced in my bosom the intended effect, he seemed to chuckle
in secret over the sting he had inflicted, and was characteristically
disregardful of the public applause which the success of his witty
endeavours might have so easily elicited. That the school, indeed, did
not feel his design, perceive its accomplishment, and participate in
his sneer, was, for many anxious months, a riddle I could not
resolve. Perhaps the gradation of his copy rendered it not so readily
perceptible; or, more possibly, I owed my security to the master air of
the copyist, who, disdaining the letter, (which in a painting is all
the obtuse can see,) gave but the full spirit of his original for my
341
Page
Quick Jump
|