Transcribed from the 1915 Martin Secker edition by DavidPrice,
THE
COXON FUND
BY HENRY JAMES
LONDON: MARTIN SECKER
NUMBER FIVE JOHN STREET ADELPHI
This editionfirst published 1915
The textfollows that of the
Definitive Edition
p. 1I
“They’ve got him forlife!” I said to myself that evening on my way back to thestation; but later on, alone in the compartment (from Wimbledonto Waterloo, before the glory of the District Railway) I amendedthis declaration in the light of the sense that my friends wouldprobably after all not enjoy a monopoly of Mr. Saltram. Iwon’t pretend to have taken his vast measure on that firstoccasion, but I think I had achieved a glimpse of what theprivilege of his acquaintance might mean for many persons in theway of charges accepted. He had been a great experience,and it was this perhaps that had put me into the frame offoreseeing how we should all, sooner or later, have the honour ofdealing with him as a whole. Whatever impression I thenreceived of the amount of this total, I had a full enough visionof the patience of the Mulvilles. He was to stay all thewinter: Adelaide dropped it in a tone that drew the sting fromthe inevitable emphasis. These excellent people mightindeed have been content to give the circle of hospitality adiameter of six months; but if they didn’t say he was tostay all summer as well it was only because this was more thanthey ventured to hope. I remember that at dinner thatevening he wore slippers, new and predominantly purple, of somequeer carpet-stuff; but the Mulvilles were still in the stage ofsupposing that he might be snatched from them by higherbidders. At a later time they grew, poor dears, to fear nosnatching; but theirs was a fidelity which needed no help fromcompetition to make them proud. Wonderful indeed as, whenall was said, you inevitably pronounced Frank Saltram, it was notto be overlooked that the Kent Mulvilles were in their way stillmore extraordinary: as striking an instance as could easily beencountered of the familiar truth that remarkable men findremarkable conveniences.
They had sent for me from Wimbledon to come out and dine, andthere had been an implication in Adelaide’snote—judged by her notes alone she might have been thoughtsilly—that it was a case in which something momentous wasto be determined or done. I had never known them not be ina “state” about somebody, and I dare say I tried tobe droll on this point in accepting their invitation. Onfinding myself in the presence of their latest discovery I hadnot at first felt irreverence droop—and, thank heaven, Ihave never been absolutely deprived of that alternative in Mr.Saltram’s company. I saw, however—I hasten todeclare it—that compared to this specimen their otherphoenixes had been bird