In the years gone by, one of the stalls in Helstonleigh Cathedral was
held by the Reverend Dr. Yorke: he had also some time filled the office
of sub-dean. He had married, imprudently, the daughter of an Irish peer,
a pretty, good-tempered girl, who was as fond of extravagance as she was
devoid of means to support it. She had not a shilling in the world; it
was even said that the bills for her trousseau came in afterwards to Dr.
Yorke: but people, you know, are given to scandal. Want of fortune had
been nothing, had Lady Augusta only possessed ordinary prudence; but she
spent the doctor’s money faster than he received it.
In the course of years Dr. Yorke died, leaving eight children, and
slender means for them. There were six boys and two girls. Lady Augusta
went to reside in a cheap and roomy house (somewhat dilapidated) in the
Boundaries, close to her old prebendal residence, and scrambled on in
her careless, spending fashion, never out of debt. She retained their
old barouche, and _would_ retain it, and was a great deal too fond of
ordering horses from the livery stables and driving out in state. Gifted
with excellent qualities had her children been born; but of training,
in the highest sense of the word, she had given them none. George, the
eldest, had a commission, and was away with his regiment. Roland, the
second, had been designed for the Church, but no persuasion could induce
him to be sufficiently attentive to his studies to qualify himself for
it; he was therefore placed with Mr. Galloway, and the Church honours
were now intended for Gerald. The fourth son, Theodore, was also in the
college school, a junior. Next came two girls, Caroline and Fanny, and
there were two little boys still younger.
Haughty, self-willed, but of sufficiently honourable nature, were
the Yorkes. If Lady Augusta had only toiled to foster the good, and
eradicate the evil, they would have grown up to bless her. Good soil was
there to work upon, as there was in the Channings; but, in the case of
the Yorkes, it was allowed to run to waste, or to generate weeds. In
short, to do as it pleased.
A noisy, scrambling, uncomfortable sort of home was that of the Yorkes;
the boys sometimes contending one with another, Lady Augusta often
quarrelling with all. The home of the Channings was ever full of love,
calm, and peace. Can you guess where the difference lay?
On the morning when the college boys had gone up to crave holiday of
the judges, and had not obtained it--at least not from the
head-master--Arthur Channing proceeded, as usual, to Mr. Galloway’s,
after breakfast. Seated at a desk, in his place, writing--he seemed to
be ever seated there--was Mr. Jenkins. He lifted his head when Arthur
entered, with a “Good morning, sir,” and then dropped it again over his
copying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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