The days of the week should mean for
them what they did mean, should come with a veritable personality, such
as the sun and the moon gained for them by thus having actual names,
like friends and playfellows. This Thor's-day was an especially great
day for them; for, in the evening, when George had returned from
business, and there was yet an hour to bedtime, they would come round
him to hear one of the adventures of the great Thor--adventures which he
had already contrived, he laughingly told us, to go on spinning out of
the Edda through no less than the Thursdays of two years. Certainly his
ingenuity of economy with his materials was no little marvel, and he
confessed to often being at his wits' end. For Thursday night was not
alone starred with stories; every night there was one to tell; sometimes
an incident of his day in town, which he would dress up with the
imaginative instinct of a born teller of fairy-tales. He had a knack,
too, of spreading one story over several days which would be invaluable
to a serial writer. I remember one simple instance of his device.
He sat in one of those great cane nursing chairs, Phyllis on one knee,
Owen on the other, and Geoffrey perched in the hollow space in the back
of the chair, leaning over his shoulder, all as solemn as a court
awaiting judgment. George begins with a preliminary glance behind at
Geoffrey: 'Happy there, my boy? That's right. Well, there was once a
beautiful garden.
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