Mary Seaham: A Novel. Volume 2 of 3Grey, Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline)
General
Mary Seaham: A Novel. Volume 2 of 3
Grey, Mrs. (Elizabeth Caroline)
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Mate selection -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"Temptation hath a music for all ears,
And mad ambition triumpheth to all,
And the ungovernable thought within
Will be in every bosom eloquent."
The very superiority of Eustace Trevor's nature, his high, and serious
estimate of the holy nature of the profession which had been forced upon
him, soon caused the youth to recoil with conscientious horror from
embracing it upon such terms. He laid his scruples before his father,
who with contemptuous indignation told him he might then starve, or beg,
for by no other means should he obtain from him a farthing of
subsistence--and his mother, whilst she sympathized in his feelings on
the subject, still encouraged and besought him to make himself worthy of
the sacred vocation, and bring down those high thoughts and aspirations
which rendered it incompatible with his desires.
This was the substance of her mild, soft pleadings in the anxious cause:
"My son, oh leave the world alone!
Safe on the steps of Jesus' throne
Be tranquil and be blest."
Encouraged by this strong persuasion, Eustace Trevor promised for her
dear sake to do all in his power to satisfy her solicitude, and
reconcile his own conscience on the point.
Eugene in the meantime was given a place in the great banking
establishment before alluded to, a position which only served to throw
the young man in the way of all the temptations and dissipations of a
London life, and rather to overthrow those expectations of Mr. Trevor,
as to the money saving propensities of his favourite.
In his fondness for money, he might indeed show himself a worthy son of
his father, for to attain it by all attainable means soon became his
actual object. Yet to whatever pitch this inclination might arrive in
later years, in these his days of youthful folly, "to spend and not to
hoard," was certainly his distinguishing propensity; thus affording his
father plentiful opportunities for displaying to the full, the partial
injustice of his conduct towards his younger children.
One of the most striking instances in this particular was exhibited a
few years after the establishment of Eustace at College, when Eugene was
about nineteen. The latter unexpectedly one summer evening arrived at
Montrevor from London, in no very happy state of mind.
Gambling was unfortunately one of the pleasures, or more properly
speaking passions, which assailed the young man most strongly in this
early part of his career. He had just lost a considerable sum of money
at the late Derby; and this was the first time that he found himself
obliged to confess this delinquency to his father, and apply for the
amount necessary for the payment of the debt of honour thus incurred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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