Harry Joscelyn; vol. 1 of 3Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
General
Harry Joscelyn; vol. 1 of 3
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Families -- England -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
Nevertheless as Harry, poor boy, had been brought up within that limited
horizon, he could not help being sorry for him. It was sad for a young
man. He was rather fond of the boy; so far as he did give in to the
prejudice that because a boy was your grand-nephew you ought to be fond
of him, Harry, it certainly was, that was the object of his affections.
After all he was a Joscelyn, and, as Joscelyns went in the present
generation, as good a specimen as any. This was not saying very much,
but still it was something to say; for though the Joscelyns of a former
generation were in every way superior, yet it was clear that it was
impossible to go back to them. However much we may prefer the past we
must all have, it is evident, to put up with the present. Mr. Joscelyn
transacted his Club business, and went very closely into that question
about the waste-paper. The waste-paper at the Club was of a very
superior kind. It was chiefly made up of letters and circulars printed
on fine paper, and the _brouillons_ of replies, which even the rural
magnates, who frequented the place, liked to write out once before they
actually produced the autograph which was to go to their correspondents;
it brought a far better price than the usual refuse of a house. But this
the present major-domo had failed to grasp; he had treated these choice
scraps as if they had been old newspapers. Mr. Joscelyn fully proved his
mistake to the reluctant functionary, who was disposed to sneer at the
whole business.
“After all, Sir, it is only five shillings difference--and I don’t mind
if I paid that out of my own pocket, sooner than make a fuss;” said the
flippant official. Mr. Joscelyn looked at him with eyes from which the
finest London butler, much less a trifling person in the country, might
have shrunk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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