The Figure in the Carpet

The Figure in the Carpet

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Figure in the Carpet, by Henry
James (#12 in our series by Henry James)
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Title: The Figure in the Carpet
Author: Henry James
Release Date: September, 1996 [EBook #645] [This file was first
posted on September 11, 1996] [Most recently updated: September 2,
2002]
Edition: 10

Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE
FIGURE IN THE CARPET ***

Transcribed from the 1916 Martin Secker edition by David Price, email
[email protected]

THE FIGURE IN THE CARPET

I had done a few things and earned a few pence--I had perhaps even
had time to begin to think I was finer than was perceived by the
patronising; but when I take the little measure of my course (a fidgety
habit, for it's none of the longest yet) I count my real start from the
evening George Corvick, breathless and worried, came in to ask me a
service. He had done more things than I, and earned more pence,
though there were chances for cleverness I thought he sometimes
missed. I could only however that evening declare to him that he never
missed one for kindness. There was almost rapture in hearing it
proposed to me to prepare for The Middle, the organ of our
lucubrations, so called from the position in the week of its day of
appearance, an article for which he had made himself responsible and
of which, tied up with a stout string, he laid on my table the subject. I
pounced upon my opportunity--that is on the first volume of it--and
paid scant attention to my friend's explanation of his appeal. What
explanation could be more to the point than my obvious fitness for the
task? I had written on Hugh Vereker, but never a word in The Middle,
where my dealings were mainly with the ladies and the minor poets.
This was his new novel, an advance copy, and whatever much or little
it should do for his reputation I was clear on the spot as to what it
should do for mine. Moreover if I always read him as soon as I could
get hold of him I had a particular reason for wishing to read him now: I
had accepted an invitation to Bridges for the following Sunday, and it
had been mentioned in Lady Jane's note that Mr. Vereker was to be

there. I was young enough for a flutter at meeting a man of his renown,
and innocent enough to believe the occasion would demand the display
of an acquaintance with his "last."
Corvick, who had promised a review of it, had not even had time to
read it; he had gone to pieces in consequence of news requiring--as on
precipitate reflexion he judged--that he should catch the night- mail to
Paris. He had had a telegram from Gwendolen Erme in answer to his
letter offering to fly to her aid. I knew already about Gwendolen Erme;
I had never seen her, but I had my ideas, which were mainly to the
effect that Corvick would marry her if her mother would only die. That
lady seemed now in a fair way to oblige him; after some dreadful
mistake about a climate or a "cure" she had suddenly collapsed on the
return from abroad. Her daughter, unsupported and alarmed, desiring to
make a rush for home but hesitating at the risk, had accepted our
friend's assistance, and it was my secret belief that at sight of him Mrs.
Erme would pull round. His own belief was scarcely to be called secret;
it discernibly at any rate differed from mine. He had showed me
Gwendolen's photograph with the remark that she wasn't pretty but was
awfully interesting; she had published at the age of nineteen a novel in
three volumes, "Deep Down," about which, in The Middle, he had been
really splendid.