The Adventures of Harry Richmond — Volume 7 — John Shaqi
The Adventures of Harry Richmond — Volume 7Meredith, George
General
The Adventures of Harry Richmond — Volume 7
Meredith, George
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction
We moved from town to town along the South coast; but it was vain to hope
we might be taken for simple people. Nor was he altogether to blame,
except in allowing the national instinct for 'worship and reverence' to
air itself unrebuked. I fled to the island. Temple ran down to meet me
there, and I heard that Janet had written to him for news of me. He
entered our hotel a private person; when he passed out, hats flew off
before him. The modest little fellow went along a double line of
attentive observers on the pier, and came back, asking me in astonishment
who he was supposed to be.
'I petitioned for privacy here!' exclaimed my father. It accounted for
the mystery.
Temple knew my feelings, and did but glance at me.
Close upon Temple's arrival we had a strange couple of visitors.
'Mistress Dolly Disher and her husband,' my father introduced them. She
called him by one of his Christian names inadvertently at times. The
husband was a confectioner, a satisfied shade of a man who reserved the
exercise of his will for his business, we learnt; she, a bustling, fresh-
faced woman of forty-five, with still expressive dark eyes, and, I
guessed, the ideal remainder of a passion in her bosom. The guess was no
great hazard. She was soon sitting beside me, telling me of the 'years'
she had known my father, and of the most affectionate friend and perfect
gentleman he was of the ladies who had been in love with him; 'no
wonder': and of his sorrows and struggles, and his beautiful voice, and
hearts that bled for him; and of one at least who prayed and trusted he
would be successful at last.
Temple and the pallid confectioner spent the day on board a yacht with my
father. Mrs. Dolly stayed to nurse me and persuade me to swallow
medicine. She talked of her youth, when, as a fashionable bootmaker's
daughter, she permitted no bills to be sent in to Mr. Richmond, alleging,
as a sufficient reason for it to her father, that their family came from
Richmond in Yorkshire. Eventually, the bills were always paid. She had
not been able to manage her husband so well; and the consequence was,
that (she breathed low) an execution was out; 'though I tell him,'
she said tremulously, 'he 's sure to be paid in the long run, if only
he'll wait. But no; he is you cannot think how obstinate in his
business. And my girl Augusta waiting for Mr. Roy Richmond, the wish of
our hearts! to assist at her wedding; and can we ask it, and have an
execution hanging over him? And for all my husband's a guest here, he's
as likely as not to set the officers at work, do what I will, to-morrow
or any day. Your father invited us, Mr. Harry. I forced my husband to
come, hoping against hope; for your papa gave the orders, relying on me,
as he believed he might, and my husband undertook them, all through me.
There it stops; he hears reports, and he takes fright: in goes the bill:
then it's law, and last Oh! I'm ashamed.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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