England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Short stories, English
"Tinkle of Inkberrow's no fool. Being a man of substance, he thinks they
may be falling back upon him."
Which was the precise fear that lay upon Miles himself. Meanwhile Nash
engaged sumptuous lodgings (if such a word could be justly applied
to any rooms at Church Dykely), and drove his wife out daily in the
pony-gig that was always looked upon as his at Caromel's Farm.
Nash was flush of money now, for he had saved some; but he could not go
on living upon it for ever. After sundry interviews with his brother,
Miles agreed to hand him over a thousand pounds: not at all too large
a sum, considering that Nash had given him his services, such as they
were, for a number of years for just his keep as a gentleman and a bonus
for pocket-money. A thousand pounds would not go far with such a farm
as Nash had been used to and would like to take, and he resolved to
emigrate to America.
Mrs. Tinkle (the Squire called her simple at times) was nearly wild when
she heard of it. It brought her out of her temper with a leap.
Condoning the rebellious marriage, she went off to remonstrate with
Nash.
"But now, why need you put yourself into this unhappy state?" asked
Nash, when he had heard what she had to say. "Dear Mrs. Tinkle, do admit
some common sense into your mind. I am not taking Charlotte to the
'other end of the world,' as you put it, but to America. It is only a
few days' passage. Outlandish foreigners! Not a bit of it. The people
are, so to speak, our own countrymen. Their language is ours; their laws
are, I believe, much as ours are."
"You may as well be millions of miles away, practically speaking,"
bewailed Mrs. Tinkle. "Charlotte will be as much lost to me there as she
would be at the North Pole. She is my only daughter, Nash Caromel, she
has never been away from me: to part with her will be like parting with
life."
"I am very sorry," said poor Nash, who was just a woman when any appeal
was made to his feelings. "Live with you? No, that would not do: but,
thank you all the same for offering it. Nothing would induce me to
spunge upon you in that way: and, were I capable of it, your son Henry
would speedily turn us out when he returned. I must get a home of my
own, for Charlotte's sake as well as for mine: and I know I can do that
in America. Land, there, may be had for an old song; fortunes are made
in no time. The probability is that before half-a-dozen years have gone
over our heads, I shall bring you Charlotte home a rich woman, and we
shall settle down here for life."
There isn't space to pursue the arguments--which lasted for a week or
two. But they brought forth no result. Nash might have turned a post
sooner than the opinions of Mrs. Tinkle, and she might as well have
tried to turn the sun as to stop his emigrating. The parish looked upon
it as not at all a bad scheme. Nash might get on well over there if he
would put off his besetting sin, indolence, and not allow the Yankees to
take him in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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