Not for
Truman was the ornate full-arm flourish; he had observed that all
Congressmen write very badly.
But my namesake may be said to have laid the foundations that winter for
an excellent running chirography, under the combined stimuli of Mr.
Gaskell's curves and a hopeless passion for his school-teacher.
As my own teacher had been my own first love, I knew all that he
suffered in voiceless longing for his fair one, throned afar in his
languishing gaze. I knew that he plucked flowers meant to be given to
her, only to lay them carelessly on the floor beside his seat when
school "took in," lacking the courage to bestow them brazenly upon his
idol as others did. I knew, too, his thrill when she came straight down
the aisle, took up the flowers with a glance of sweet reproof for him,
and nested them in the largest vase on her desk. But my poor affair had
been in an earlier day, and my namesake wove novelty into the woof of
his. For in that wonder-book of the fertile-minded Gaskell was a form of
letter which Calvin Blake Denney began to copy early in December, and
which by the following spring he could write in a style that already put
my own poor penning to the blush.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165