LADLANA
UNIQUE NUMBER 649669
ASSIGNMENT 01
MAY 2021
, QUESTION 1
1.1 Reading Text:
Oscar Wilde
The Model Millionaire
A note of admiration
Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich,
not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have
a permanent income than to be fascinating. These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie
Erskine never realised. Poor Hughie! Intellectually, we must admit, he was not of much importance.
He never said a brilliant or even an ill-natured thing in his life. But then he was wonderfully good-
looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear-cut profile, and his grey eyes. He was as popular with
men as he was with women, and he had every accomplishment except that of making money. His
father had bequeathed him his cavalry sword, and a History of the Peninsular War in fifteen
volumes. Hughie hung the first over his looking-glass, put the second on a shelf between Ruff's
Guide and Bailey's Magazine, and lived on two hundred a year that an old aunt allowed him. He had
tried everything. He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months; but what was a butterfly to do
among bulls and bears? He had been a tea-merchant for a little longer, but had soon tired of pekoe
and souchong. Then he had tried selling dry sherry. That did not answer; the sherry was a little too
dry. Ultimately he became nothing, a delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no
profession.
To make matters worse, he was in love. The girl he loved was Laura Merton, the daughter of a
retired Colonel who had lost his temper and his digestion in India, and had never found either of
them again. Laura adored him, and he was ready to kiss her shoe-strings. They were the handsomest
couple in London, and had not a penny-piece between them. The Colonel was very fond of Hughie,
but would not hear of any engagement.
'Come to me, my boy, when you have got ten thousand pounds of your own, and we will see
about it,' he used to say; and Hughie looked very glum on those days, and had to go to Laura for
consolation.
One morning, as he was on his way to Holland Park, where the Mertons lived, he dropped in to
see a great friend of his, Alan Trevor. Trevor was a painter. Indeed, few people escape that
nowadays. But he was also an artist, and artists are rather rare. Personally he was a strange rough
fellow, with a freckled face and a red ragged beard. However, when he took up the brush he was a
real master, and his pictures were eagerly sought after. He had been very much attracted by Hughie
at first, it must be acknowledged, entirely on account of his personal charm. 'The only people a
painter should know,' he used to say, 'are people who are bete and beautiful, people who are an
artistic pleasure to look at and an intellectual repose to talk to. Men who are dandies and women
who are darlings rule the world, at least they should do so.' However, after he got to know Hughie
better, he liked him quite as much for his bright buoyant spirits and his generous reckless nature,
and had given him the permanent entree to his studio..
UNIQUE NUMBER 649669
ASSIGNMENT 01
MAY 2021
, QUESTION 1
1.1 Reading Text:
Oscar Wilde
The Model Millionaire
A note of admiration
Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich,
not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have
a permanent income than to be fascinating. These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie
Erskine never realised. Poor Hughie! Intellectually, we must admit, he was not of much importance.
He never said a brilliant or even an ill-natured thing in his life. But then he was wonderfully good-
looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear-cut profile, and his grey eyes. He was as popular with
men as he was with women, and he had every accomplishment except that of making money. His
father had bequeathed him his cavalry sword, and a History of the Peninsular War in fifteen
volumes. Hughie hung the first over his looking-glass, put the second on a shelf between Ruff's
Guide and Bailey's Magazine, and lived on two hundred a year that an old aunt allowed him. He had
tried everything. He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months; but what was a butterfly to do
among bulls and bears? He had been a tea-merchant for a little longer, but had soon tired of pekoe
and souchong. Then he had tried selling dry sherry. That did not answer; the sherry was a little too
dry. Ultimately he became nothing, a delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no
profession.
To make matters worse, he was in love. The girl he loved was Laura Merton, the daughter of a
retired Colonel who had lost his temper and his digestion in India, and had never found either of
them again. Laura adored him, and he was ready to kiss her shoe-strings. They were the handsomest
couple in London, and had not a penny-piece between them. The Colonel was very fond of Hughie,
but would not hear of any engagement.
'Come to me, my boy, when you have got ten thousand pounds of your own, and we will see
about it,' he used to say; and Hughie looked very glum on those days, and had to go to Laura for
consolation.
One morning, as he was on his way to Holland Park, where the Mertons lived, he dropped in to
see a great friend of his, Alan Trevor. Trevor was a painter. Indeed, few people escape that
nowadays. But he was also an artist, and artists are rather rare. Personally he was a strange rough
fellow, with a freckled face and a red ragged beard. However, when he took up the brush he was a
real master, and his pictures were eagerly sought after. He had been very much attracted by Hughie
at first, it must be acknowledged, entirely on account of his personal charm. 'The only people a
painter should know,' he used to say, 'are people who are bete and beautiful, people who are an
artistic pleasure to look at and an intellectual repose to talk to. Men who are dandies and women
who are darlings rule the world, at least they should do so.' However, after he got to know Hughie
better, he liked him quite as much for his bright buoyant spirits and his generous reckless nature,
and had given him the permanent entree to his studio..
