Rudyard Kipling

Indian Tales Rudyard Kipling

That was our first step toward better acquaintance. He would call on me sometimes in the eveningsinstead of running about London with his fellow-clerks; and before long, speaking of himself as ayoung man must, he told me of his aspirations, which were all literary. He desired to make himselfan undying name chiefly through verse, though he was not above sending stories of love and deathto the drop-a-penny-in-the-slot journals. It was my fate to sit still while Charlie read me poems ofmany hundred lines, and bulky fragments of plays that would surely shake the world. My reward washis unreserved confidence, and the self-revelations and troubles of a young man are almost as holyas those of a maiden. Charlie had never fallen in love, but was anxious to do so on the firstopportunity; he believed in all things good and all things honorable, but, at the same time, wascuriously careful to let me see that he knew his way about the world as befitted a bank clerk ontwenty-five shillings a week. He rhymed "dove" with "love" and "moon" with "June," and devoutlybelieved that they had never so been rhymed before. The long lame gaps in his plays he filled upwith hasty words of apology and description and swept on, seeing all that he intended to do soclearly that he esteemed it already done, and turned to me for applause.