Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His SonButler, Samuel
Philosophy
Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His Son
Butler, Samuel
Satire; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
Luncheon was now announced. My father was feeling faint and ill; more
than once during the forenoon he had had a return of the strange
giddiness and momentary loss of memory which had already twice attacked
him, but he had recovered in each case so quickly that no one had seen
he was unwell. He, poor man, did not yet know what serious brain
exhaustion these attacks betokened, and finding himself in his usual
health as soon as they passed away, set them down as simply effects of
fatigue and undue excitement.
George did not lunch with the others. Yram explained that he had to draw
up a report which would occupy him till dinner time. Her three other
sons, and her three lovely daughters, were there. My father was
delighted with all of them, for they made friends with him at once. He
had feared that he would have been disgraced in their eyes, by his having
just come from prison, but whatever they may have thought, no trace of
anything but a little engaging timidity on the girls’ part was to be
seen. The two elder boys--or rather young men, for they seemed fully
grown, though, like George, not yet bearded--treated him as already an
old acquaintance, while the youngest, a lad of fourteen, walked straight
up to him, put out his hand, and said, “How do you do, sir?” with a
pretty blush that went straight to my father’s heart.
“These boys,” he said to Yram aside, “who have nothing to blush for--see
how the blood mantles into their young cheeks, while I, who should blush
at being spoken to by them, cannot do so.”
“Do not talk nonsense,” said Yram, with mock severity.
But it was no nonsense to my poor father. He was awed at the goodness
and beauty with which he found himself surrounded. His thoughts were too
full of what had been, what was, and what was yet to be, to let him
devote himself to these young people as he would dearly have liked to do.
He could only look at them, wonder at them, fall in love with them, and
thank heaven that George had been brought up in such a household.
When luncheon was over, Yram said, “I will now send you to a room where
you can lie down and go to sleep for a few hours. You will be out late
to-night, and had better rest while you can. Do you remember the drink
you taught us to make of corn parched and ground? You used to say you
liked it. A cup shall be brought to your room at about five, for you
must try and sleep till then. If you notice a little box on the dressing-
table of your room, you will open it or no as you like. About half-past
five there will be a visitor, whose name you can guess, but I shall not
let her stay long with you. Here comes the servant to take you to your
room.” On this she smiled, and turned somewhat hurriedly away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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