A Country Gentleman and His FamilyOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
General
A Country Gentleman and His Family
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Marriage -- Fiction
Notwithstanding which Dick Cavendish arrived, as had been arranged.
There was nothing remarkable about his appearance. He was an ordinary
brown-haired, blue-eyed young man,--not, perhaps, ordinary, for that
combination is rather rare,--and there were some people who said that
something in his eye betrayed what they called insincerity; indeed there
was generally about him an agreeableness, a ready self-adaptation to
everybody's way of thinking, a desire to recommend himself, which is
always open to censure. Mrs. Wilberforce was one of the people who shook
her head and declared him to be insincere. And as he went so far as to
agree that the empire very possibly was dropping to pieces, and the
education of the poor tending to their and our destruction, in order to
please her, it is possible that she was not far wrong. As a matter of
fact, however, his tactics were successful even with her; and though
she did not relinquish her deep-seated conviction, yet the young man
succeeded in flattering and pleasing her, which was all that he wanted,
and not that she should vouch for his sincerity. He was very sorry to
hear that the Warrenders were in mourning. "I saw the death in the
papers," he said, "and thought for a moment that I had perhaps better
write and put off; for some people look their worst in mourning. But
then I reflected that some others look their best; and their hearts are
soft, and a little judicious consolation nicely administered----"
Though it was not perhaps of a very high quality, the rector was
delighted with his young friend's wit.
"It must be nicely administered," he said, "and you will not find them
inaccessible. They are the best girls in the world, but too natural to
make a fuss, as some girls do. He was a very insignificant, neutral-tinted
kind of man. I cannot think why they should be supposed to be so
inconsolable."
"Oh, Herbert!" said his wife.
"Yes, I know, my dear; but Oh, Herbert, is no argument. Nobody is
missed so much as we expect, not the very best. Life may have to make
itself a new channel, but it flows always on. And when the man is quite
insignificant, like poor Mr. Warrender----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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