And Vivian, pointing to the name addressed to him, said, "Now, indeed,
I may resume this name, and, next to Heaven, will I hold it sacred! It
shall guide me to glory in life, or my father shall read it, without
shame, on my tomb!" I see him before me, as he stood then--his form
erect, his dark eyes solemn in their light, a serenity in his smile, a
grandeur on his brow, that I had never marked till then! Was that the
same man I had recoiled from as the sneering cynic, shuddered at as the
audacious traitor, or wept over as the cowering outcast? How little
the nobleness of aspect depends on symmetry of feature, or the mere
proportions of form! What dignity robes the man who is filled with a
lofty thought!
CHAPTER XCVIII.
He is gone! he has left a void in my existence. I had grown to love
him so well; I had been so proud when men praised him. My love was a
sort of self-love--I had looked upon him in part as the work of my own
hands. I am a long time ere I can settle back, with good heart, to my
pastoral life. Before my cousin went, we cast up our gains, and settled
our shares. When he resigned the allowance which Roland had made him,
his father secretly gave to me, for his use, a sum equal to that which
I and Guy Bolding brought into the common stock. Roland had raised the
sum upon mortgage; and, while the interest was a trivial deduction
from his income, compared to the former allowance, the capital was
much more useful to his son than a mere yearly payment could have
been. Thus, between us, we had a considerable sum for Australian
settlers--£4500. For the first two years we made nothing; indeed, great
part of the first year was spent in learning our art, at the station of
an old settler. But, at the end of the third year, our flocks having
then become very considerable, we cleared a return beyond my most
sanguine expectations. And when my cousin left, just in the sixth year
of exile, our shares amounted to £4000 each, exclusive of the value of
the two stations. My cousin had, at first, wished that I should forward
his share to his father, but he soon saw that Roland would never take
it; and it was finally agreed that it should rest in my hands, for
me to manage for him, send him out interest at five per cent, and
devote the surplus profits to the increase of his capital. I had now,
therefore, the control of £12,000, and we might consider ourselves very
respectable capitalists. I kept on the cattle station, by the aid of
the Will-o'-the-Wisp, for about two years after Vivian's departure, (we
had then had it altogether for five.) At the end of that time, I sold
it and the stock to great advantage. And the sheep--for the "brand"
of which I had a high reputation--having wonderfully prospered in the
meanwhile, I thought we might safely extend our speculations into new
ventures. Glad, too, of a change of scene, I left Bolding in charge
of the flocks, and bent my course to Adelaide, for the fame of that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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