996
PARTISAN REVIEW
"It
wouldn't be a very serious Injury, Mother, and then Eliza–
beth could show her prowess as a First Aider or whatever they're called
in the Guides" said Richard, but nevertheless he moved slowly to–
wards his father. Before he could offer assistance, however, a tall
fair-haired youth had sprung forward.
"Allow me, please, Mr. Newman" he said, the stiffness of his
foreign English relieved by the charm and intimacy of his smile "I
am very able to cut wood with these kind of knives."
"That's very kind of you, Sven" said Monica "there you are,
darlings, you see, Sven has manners. I'm surprised you weren't able
to learn a few, Richard, when you were staying with him in Sweden.
I'm afraid we lost all our manners here while we were busy fighting
the war."
Two sharp points of red glowed suddenly on the Swedish boy's
high cheekbones and his already slanting eyes narrowed and blinked.
Edwin Newman glared angrily at his wife, his prominent Adam's
apple jerking convulsively above his open-necked shift. He placed a
hand on Sven's shoulder.
"You have given us so many useful lessons since you arrived,
Sven, if you use the same charm to re-educate us in everyday cour–
tesy, we shall be fortunate" he said.
"You are too kind to say these many good things to me, Mr.
Newman" replied the boy "I hope I shall not quite fail to deserve
them."
"You two ought to be talking in Latin" said Richard "You
sound like Dr. Johnson, Dad, when he met famo:.Is foreign scholars.
By the way, Grannie, have you been getting at Sven about his read–
ing? I can't persuade him to read anything decent like De Quincey or
Dickens or Coleridge. He seems to think for some reason or other
that he's got to wade through 'Rasselas' in order to 'appreciate litera–
ture' as he calls it. I must say I shouldn't have thought even you would
have inflicted that torture upon anyone."
Mrs. Rackham's heavy square-jawed face lost its look of grim–
ness for a moment as she spoke to her beloved grandson.
"I am delighted to hear of a blow being struck at this neo-roman–
tic nonsense. Like Miss Deborah I think that nothing but good can
arise from reading the works of the great Lexicographer. Continue
to read Rasselas," she said to Sven "and you may yet know what
