JAY MARTIN
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performed th e kind o f ac t unthinka bl e to the French-board ing a boat
for Londo n without pi cking up his reversibl e o r pl anting hi s ha t
firml y on hi s h ead !
If
Henry wanted to foll ow Dick LO Ameri ca, then ,
he had but to take a tra in to Le H avre o r Cherbourg and wa it for a
depa rture.
It
was the first time sin ce he had been in Par is tha t h e had
an y cho ice a bout hi s own fa te. H e sa t in the Pl ace La faye LLe and let hi s
tho ughts drift. All the defects tha t Osbo rn found in French life were
th ere a ll ri ght-the selfi shness and indifference, the in sistence on the
reasona bl e and restra in ed, th e peLLy severity and mean puritani sm–
there fo r Fren chmen a t leas t. But for an Ameri can , like himself, who
had no t caved in , an Ameri can who knew where hi s next mea l was
comin g from , France was just fin e; he could as k no mo re. T he way the
colo red awnings were gentl y fl apping in the breeze, the chestnut trees
spilling go ld sequins in bl ond beer, the clock ring ing in a church
LOwer-these a ll seemed to be a part of the fl ow o f the seasons, the
sweep o f time, and yet fo r th e very same reason to be immemo ri al and
unchang ing. It was no t the whi skey o r the win e o r th e las t Pernod he
sha red with Di ck th a t fl owed through him-it was the go lden stream o f
the life about him g lidin g by and th en through him and becomin g his
life. Now th a t it came to a cho ice about returnin g to Ameri ca, he
di scovered tha t th e Pa ri s whi ch he had never chosen had chosen him.
It
was like his first Sunday in Pa ri s: he would stay and live and write; he
felt th at same convi cti on aga in , onl y now it was bo rn [rom experi ence
and no t innocence and was likely to last. He and Di ck, tha t day, bo th
made their way toward home.
This did no t impl y tha t H enry wasn ' t pleased with the escape pl an
whi ch h e had led Osbo rn LO execute. H e decided a t once to vote himself
a sizeabl e commi ssion of 800 francs. H e sent an even 2, 000 francs to
J eann e by posta l check tha t very a fternoo n. He encl osed a note written
with hi s left hand , sha kil y, like Osborn 's writing, say in g:
"Chere
Jeanne. Je su is part i pour l'Amerique.
0 ."
His has te could have been
an error of a major so rt, sin ce J eanne rapidl y checked the schedul es o f
French departures and was on a tra in tha t very evening to Le H avre
where she kept her eye upon the departing steamship
R ochambeau
until it sa il ed. Fo rtun a tely Dick was depa rtin g tha t same day from
Cherbourg [o r London on the
Olympic.
H enry put hi s sto ry into "The Last Book" even befo re Osbo rn
landed in Ameri ca. By thi s time the book was fa r eno ugh advanced fo r
him to take the chance o f showin g it LO Lowenfels. Wa lter sensed its
importan ce a fter reading the first fifty pages and wrote out eight p ages
of commentary on them . " He is ca reful to surround himself with dead
