The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford, Edited by his friend Reuben ShapcottWhite, William Hale
General
The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford, Edited by his friend Reuben Shapcott
White, William Hale
Religious fiction
The next day I came to my new quarters. I found that he was a bachelor,
with a niece, apparently about four or five and twenty years old, acting
as a housekeeper, who assisted him in literary work. My own room was at
the top of the house, warm, quiet, and comfortable, although the view was
nothing but a wide reaching assemblage of chimney-pots. My hours were
long—from nine in the morning till seven in the evening; but this I did
not mind. I felt that if I was not happy, I was at least protected, and
that I was with a man who cared for me, and for whom I cared. The first
day I went there, he said that I could have a fire in my bedroom whenever
I chose, so that I could always retreat to it when I wished to be by
myself. As for my duties, I was to sell his books, keep his accounts,
read proofs, run errands, and in short do just what he did himself.
After my first morning’s work we went upstairs to dinner, and I was
introduced to “my niece Theresa.” I was rather surprised that I should
have been admitted to a house in which there lived a young woman with no
mother nor aunt, but this surprise ceased when I came to know more of
Theresa and her uncle. She had yellowish hair which was naturally waved,
a big arched head, greyish-blue eyes, so far as I could make out, and a
mouth which, although it had curves in it, was compressed and indicative
of great force of character. She was rather short, with square
shoulders, and she had a singularly vigorous, firm walk. She had a way,
when she was not eating or drinking, of sitting back in her chair at
table and looking straight at the person with whom she was talking.
Her uncle, whom, by the way, I had forgotten to name—his name was
Wollaston—happened to know some popular preacher whom I knew, and I said
that I wondered so many people went to hear him, for I believed him to be
a hypocrite, and hypocrisy was one of the easiest of crimes to discover.
Theresa, who had hitherto been silent, and was reclining in her usual
attitude, instantly broke out with an emphasis and directness which quite
startled me.
“The easiest to discover, do you think, Mr. Rutherford? I think it is
the most difficult, at least for ordinary persons; and when they do
discover it, I believe they like it, especially if it is successful.
They like the sanction it gives to their own hypocrisy. They like a man
to come to them who will say to them, ‘We are all hypocrites together,’
and who will put his finger to his nose and comfort them. Don’t you
think so yourself?”
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