Father Payne

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Father Payne, by Arthur Christopher BensonThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: Father PayneAuthor: Arthur Christopher BensonRelease Date: May 4, 2004 [EBook #12264]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FATHER PAYNE ***Produced by David Newman and PG Distributed Proofreaders. Produced from images provided by the Million BookProject.FATHER PAYNEBy Arthur Christopher Benson1915PREFACEOften as I have thought of my old friend "Father Payne," as we affectionately called him, I had somehow never intended towrite about him, or if I did, it was "like as a dream when one awaketh," a vision that melted away at the touch of commonlife. Yet I always felt that his was one of those rich personalities well worth depicting, if the attitude and gesture with whichhe faced the world could be caught and fixed. The difficulty was that he was a man of ideas rather than of performance,suggestive rather than active: and the whole history of his experiment with life was evasive, and even to ordinary viewsfantastic.Besides, my own life has been a busy one, full of hard ordinary work: it was not until the war gave me, like manycraftsmen, a most reluctant and unwelcome space of leisure, that I ever had the ...