octor's prediction.
He was no longer dyspeptic. That fact alone contributed much to his
happiness.

Yes, he was happy, because he had a good digestion and a kind heart. The
sole shadow on his career was a spasmodic tendency to be bored. 'I miss
the daily journey on the Underground,' he once said to his wife. 'I
always feel that I ought to be going to the office in the morning.' 'You
dear thing!' Geraldine caressed him with her voice. 'Fancy anyone with
a gift like yours going to an office!'

Ah, that gift! That gift utterly puzzled him. 'I just sit down and
write,' he thought. 'And there it is! They go mad over it!'

At Dawes Road they worshipped him, but they worshipped the twins more.
Occasionally the twins, in state, visited Dawes Road, where Henry's
mother was a little stouter and Aunt Annie a little thinner and a little
primmer, but where nothing else was changed. Henry would have allowed
his mother fifty pounds a week or so without an instant's hesitation,
but she would not accept a penny over three pounds; she said she did not
want to be bothered.

One day Henry read in the _Times_ that the French Government had made
Tom a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and that Tom had been elected
President of the newly-formed Cosmopolitan Art Society, which was to
hold exhibitions both in London and Paris. And the _Times_ seemed to
assume that in these transactions the honour was the French Government's
and the Cosmopolitan Art Society's.

Frankly, Henry could not understand it. Tom did not even pay his
creditors.

'Well, of course,' said Geraldine, 'everybody knows that Tom _is_ a
genius.'

This speech slightly disturbed Henry. And the thought floated again
vaguely through his mind that there was something about Geraldine which
baffled him. 'But, then,' he argued, 'I expect all women are like that.'

A few days later his secretary brought him a letter.

'I say, Geraldine,' he cried, genuinely moved, on reading it. 'What do
you think? The Anti-Breakfast League want me to be the President of the
League.'

'And shall you accept?' she asked.

'Oh, certainly!' said Henry. 'And I shall suggest that it's called the
National Anti-Breakfast League in future.'

'That will be much better, dearest,' Geraldine smiled.

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Great Man, by Arnold Bennett

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GREAT MAN ***

***** This fil