Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/154

128 128 COMMONSENSE OF MR. ARNOLD BENNETT States it describes are states of mind, 4tat8 d'dme^ oftener than the seven-and-forty parallelograms — and nobody properly appreciative of Mr. Bennett's idio- syncrasy, of the way his egotism works, will take that to mean it is but an account, an Anatole Frenchified account, of his own soul's adventures among those forty-seven masterpieces. It is other people's souls he is interested in : instead of putting the Paternal poser " What is this engaging personality to me .^ " his instinct is always to ask " What sort of time would I he having if I were this engaging personality ? " — and in this account of a seven weeks' (less one day) trip we find him trying on successively, eagerly, as no other literary traveller ever has done, the shoes of lift-boys, millionaires, railway captains, kindergartners, tele- phone-girls, baseball players, hotel managers, newly married couples, professional murderers, and others. One of the great scenes in the book, one of the most richly representative, is his attempt to get into the pair worn by a certain giant of finance. It is recounted quite simply, without a trace of braggadocio, just as though it were the most natural episode in the world — but to us, looking on from afar, our imaginations heated by the tales of earlier travellers, it has a perfect Hop-o'-my-Thumb hardihood and bright fearlessness. Jack enters the Ogre's castle. Finally, we approached the sacred lair and fastness of the president, whose massive portrait I had already seen on several walls. Spaciousness and magnificence increased. Ceilings rose in height, marble was softened by the thick pile of carpets. Mahogany and gold shone more luxuriously. I was introduced into the vast ante-chamber of the presidential secretaries, and by the chief of them inducted through polished and gleaming barriers into the presence-chamber itself, a noble apartment, an apartment surpassing dreams and expectations, conceived and executed in a spirit of majestic prodigality. The president had not been afraid. And his costly audacity was splendidly justified of itself. This man had a sense of the romantic, of the dramatic.