Round the Corner: Being the Life and Death of Francis Christopher Folyat, Bachelor of Divinity, and Father of a Large FamilyCannan, Gilbert
General
Round the Corner: Being the Life and Death of Francis Christopher Folyat, Bachelor of Divinity, and Father of a Large Family
Cannan, Gilbert
Clergy -- Fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; English fiction -- 20th century; Families -- Fiction
There came to live near the town at this time Mrs. Bradby-Folyat, an
aunt of the Folkestone Folyats, an old lady of much wealth, whose
estate was continually being augmented by legacies bequeathed by
irascible Bradbys and Folyats who were sickened by the attentions of
their legacy-hunting poorer relations. Mrs. Bradby-Folyat left her
relations alone, and the harvest of her wisdom was great. . . . Being
a lady of strong character and almost masculine intelligence she had a
great fondness for the weak and almost idiotic Streeten Folyat, who
long ago had abandoned his sheep-farm in Westmoreland and wandered
from one profession to another, shedding in each a portion of his
patrimony. Between journalism and market-gardening he spent several
months with his aunt at Boynton and amused himself in the town in
Frederic's company. Occasionally he visited the house in Burdley Park.
. . . Then he bought a small fleet of fishing-smacks at Scarborough,
sold them after ten months at a heavy loss and returned to Boynton.
His income had dwindled to four hundred. He bought houses in our town
and was quickly embroiled in a law-suit--his idleness made him
quarrelsome--and placed the case in Frederic's hands. By sheer luck
Frederic won the case and delighted the old lady at Boynton, who
insisted on considering that he had saved Streeten from ruin. She
invited Frederic and his wife to stay with her, and entrusted him with
the management of her estate. Frederic was almost delirious at this
access of fortune, and calculated that if the old lady lived for
another ten years he would make at least six thousand pounds. He was
in debt--he could not amuse himself with Streeten for nothing--and he
borrowed money from a friendly moneylender whose rate of interest per
cent. _per mensem_ seemed reasonable and low.
When Frederic was not at Boynton Streeten was at Frederic's house, and
when Streeten was at Frederic's house there also was Gertrude.
Streeten was amazingly vain, a fop, and as eager to scan his features
in the glass as a little boy just on the verge of adolescence, who is
beginning to feel that the eyes of the world are upon him. Such men,
when no mirror is near, will turn to the nearest woman. If in her he
can see the faintest reflection of himself, pat he will fall in love
with it. . . . There were not many mirrors in Frederic's house.
Streeten turned to Jessie but saw only Frederic, to Gertrude then, and
he saw himself enlarged, heightened, dazzling. It was the most
bewildering reflection of himself that he had ever seen, and at once
he was prostrate before it.
Almost before he could realise what had happened he was picked up,
thrust into a frock-coat and silk hat, taken to church, married to
Gertrude, and packed off for a honeymoon to Ilfracombe. He was very
bored and savage. He wanted to be at Boynton or amusing himself with
Frederic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account