L. P. Hartley (4)

(fotografia de Joel D. Levinson, "Woman and Piano #18", 1975)

"All the time at Brandham I had been another little boy and the grown-ups had aided and abetted me in this: it was a great deal their fault. They liked to think of a little boy as a little boy, corresponding to their idea of what a little boy should be - as a representative of little boyhood - not a Leo or a Marcus. They even had a special language designed for little boys - at least some of them had, some of the visitors: not the family: the family, and Lord Trimingham too who was soon to be one of them, respected one's dignity. But there are other ways, far more seductive to oneself than the title «my little man», to make one feel unreal. No little boy likes to be called a little man, but any little boy likes to be treated as a little man, and this is what Marian had done for me: at times, and when she had wanted to, she had endowed me with the importance of a grown-up; she had made me feel that she depended on me. She, more than anyone, had puffed me up" (1)

L. P. Hartley

(1) HARTLEY, L.P. - The Go-Between. 2ªed. Oxford: Heinemann New Windmills, 1985. ISBN 0-435-12299-1. p.259, 260.