Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral TalesEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral Tales
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
Holloway's eyes sparkled with joy at the sight of the glittering bribe.
He began some speech in reply, in which he compared his father to
Maecenas; but being entangled in a sentence, in which the nominative
case had been too long separated from the verb, he was compelled
to pause abruptly. Nevertheless, the alderman rubbed his hands with
exultation; and "Hear him! hear him!--hear your member!" was vociferated
by all the friends of the young orator. "Well, really," concluded
his mother to the ladies, who were complimenting her upon her son's
performance, "it was not a bad speech, considering he had nothing to
say!"
Lord Rawson, who was one of the company, now congratulated his friend
in a whisper--"You've made a good job of it to-day, Augustus," said he:
"solid pudding's better than empty praise. We're going," continued his
lordship to the alderman, "to try my new horses this evening;" and he
pulled Augustus with him out of the room.
"There they go," said the prudent father, delighted with his own son's
being the chosen friend of a nobleman--"there they go, arm in arm, a
couple of rare ones: we shall have fine work with them, I foresee, when
Augustus gets to college--but young men of spirit must not be
curbed like common boys--we must make allowances--I have been young
myself,--hey, Mr. Supine?"
"Certainly, sir," said the obsequious tutor; "and you still have all the
sprightliness of youth; and my ideas of education square completely with
yours."
According to Alderman Holloway's ideas of education, the holy days were
always to be made a season of complete idleness and dissipation, to
relieve his son from his school studies. It was his great delight to
contrast the pleasures of home with the hardships of school, and to
make his son compare the indulgence of a father with the severity of
a schoolmaster. How he could expect an education to succeed which
he sedulously endeavoured to counteract, it may be difficult for any
rational person to conceive.
After Lord Rawson and Holloway had enjoyed the pleasures of driving the
new horses, _tandem_, in a dog-cart, and had conversed about dogs and
horses till they had nothing left to say to each other, his lordship
proposed stepping in to Mr. Carat, the jeweller's shop, to look at some
new watches: his lordship said he was tired of his own, for he had had
it six months. Mr. Carat was not in the way when they first went in.
One of the young men who attended in the shop said, "that his master was
extremely busy, in settling some accounts with a captain of a ship, who
was to leave England in a few days."
"Don't tell me of settling accounts," cried Lord Ramon--"I hate the
sound of settling accounts: run and tell Mr. Carat that Lord Rawson is
here, and must speak to him this instant, for I'm in a desperate hurry."
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