Bildungsromans; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Scotland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Trewhella, with the lapse of time, and after another violent outbreak on
account of the arrival of a letter from Castleton, ceased to importune
his wife with jealous denunciations of the old glittering days before
they met. The farm prospered: he took to counting his money more than
ever since an heir had given him a pledge for the commemoration of his
thrift. During the winter Jenny drove once or twice in the high cart to
Camston, and, with May to help her, scornfully turned out the contents
of the drapery shops. On these occasions Granfa was made responsible for
young Frank, and when they came back he had to give a very full account
of his regency. Other winter events included a visit from Mr. Corin, who
had opened a dairy away up in the east of the Duchy. He annoyed Jenny
by his exaggerated congratulations, embracing as they did himself as
much as Zachary and her. Mrs. Trewhella would from time to time announce
her surrender of the household keys; but Jenny was not anxious to
control anything except her son, and the old woman, manifestly pleased,
continued to superintend with blink and cackle maid Emily. Jenny lost
her fear of bullocks, dreaded insects no longer, and might have been a
Cornish maid all her life, save for her clear-cut Cockney, to which not
a single western burr adhered. She no longer pined for London; was never
sentimental towards eight o'clock; and certainly could not be supposed
to exist in an atmosphere of regret. At the same time, she could not be
said to have settled down, because her husband was perpetually an
intrusion on any final serenity. She could not bear the way he ate, the
grit and soil and raggedness of his face; she loathed the grimy scars
upon his hands, his smell of corduroy. She hated his mental outlook, his
pre-occupation with hell, his narrow pride, and lack of humor, his
pricking avarice and mean vanity, his moral cowardice and religious
bravery, his grossness and cunning and boastfulness and cruelty to
animals. She feared the storms that would one day arise between him and
his son. She felt even now the clashing of the two hostile temperaments:
already there were signs of future struggles, and it was not just a
fancy that young Frank was always peevish at his father's approach.
The equinox sank asleep to an April lullaby. Lambs bleated on the
storm-washed air. The ocean plumed itself like a mating bird. Then
followed three weeks of gray weather and much restlessness on the part
of young Frank, who cried and fumed and was very naughty indeed. What
with Frank and the southeast wind and the cold rain, Jenny's nerves
suffered, and when May morning broke in a dazzle, she thought it would
be a good plan to leave young Frank with Granfa, and in May's company to
go for a long walk. May was delighted and together they set out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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