Bildungsromans; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Scotland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
It might have seemed to the casual onlooker that Arcadia had recompensed
Jenny for all that had gone before; and, indeed, could the whole of
existence have been set in that inclosure of dappled hours, she might
have attained sheer contentment. Even Jenny, with all she had longed
for, all she had possessed and all she had lost, might have been
permanently happy. But she was no sundial marking only the bright hours;
life had to go on when twilight came and night fell. Young Frank, asleep
in golden candlelight, could not mitigate the injury of her husband's
presence. Even young Frank, best and most satisfying of babies, was the
son of Zachary; would, when he grew out of babyhood, contain alien
blood. There might then be riddles of character which his mother would
never solve. Strange features would show themselves, foreign eyes,
perhaps, or a mouth which knew no curve of her own. Now he was adorably
complete, Jenny's own against the world; and yet he was a symbol of her
subjugation. Already Zachary was beginning to use their boy to
consolidate his possession of herself. Already he was talking about the
child's education and obviously making ready for an opportunity to
thrust him into religious avarice and gloom. The arrival of young Frank
had apparently increased the father's tendency to brood over the darker
problems of his barbarous creed. He talked of young Frank, who would
surely inherit some of the Raeburn joy of life, as if he would grow up
in suspicion, demon-haunted, oppressed with the fear of God's wrath, a
sour and melancholy dreamer of damnable dreams.
Zachary took to groaning aloud over the sins of his fellow-men, would
groan and sweat horribly in the imagination of the unappeasable cruelty
of God. These outbreaks of despair for mankind were the more obnoxious
to Jenny because they were always followed by a monstrous excess of his
privileges, by an utterly abhorred affectionateness. Mr. Champion, the
outspoken, clear-headed old man, would often remonstrate with his
nephew. Once, while Trewhella was in a spasm of misery groaning for his
own sins and the sins of the world, a sick cow died in audible agony on
account of his neglect.
"You ought to be ashamed, you foolish man," said Granfa. "You ought to
be ashamed to leave the poor animal die. Darn 'ee, I believe the devil
_will_ have 'ee!"
"What's a cow," said Trewhella somberly, "beside my own scarlet sins?"
"'Tis one of the worst of 'em," said Granfa positively. "'Tis so scarlet
as wool. Get up, and leave be all your praying and sweating, you foolish
man. You do drive me plum mad with your foolishness. How don't 'ee do
your own work fittee and leave the dear Lord mind his own business? He
don't want to be told at his time of life what to do. Oh, you do drive
me mad."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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