[The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne]@TWC D-Link bookThe Wrecker CHAPTER IV 5/21
He followed at heel; his laugh was ready chorus; our friends gave him the nickname of "The Henchman." It was in this insidious form that servitude approached me. Pinkerton and I read and re-read the famous news: he, I can swear, with an enjoyment as unalloyed and far more vocal than my own.
The statue was nearly done: a few days' work sufficed to prepare it for exhibition; the master was approached; he gave his consent; and one cloudless morning of May beheld us gathered in my studio for the hour of trial.
The master wore his many-hued rosette; he came attended by two of my French fellow-pupils--friends of mine and both considerable sculptors in Paris at this hour.
"Corporal John" (as we used to call him) breaking for once those habits of study and reserve which have since carried him so high in the opinion of the world, had left his easel of a morning to countenance a fellow-countryman in some suspense.
My dear old Romney was there by particular request; for who that knew him would think a pleasure quite complete unless he shared it, or not support a mortification more easily if he were present to console? The party was completed by John Myner, the Englishman; by the brothers Stennis,--Stennis-aine and Stennis-frere, as they used to figure on their accounts at Barbizon--a pair of hare-brained Scots; and by the inevitable Jim, as white as a sheet and bedewed with the sweat of anxiety. I suppose I was little better myself when I unveiled the Genius of Muskegon.
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