The Disowned — CompleteLytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
The Disowned — Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century
It was unfortunate for Glendower that he never again met Wolfe: for
neither fanaticism of political faith, nor sternness of natural temper,
subdued in the republican the real benevolence and generosity which
redeemed and elevated his character; nor could any impulse of party zeal
have induced him, like Crauford, systematically to take advantage of
poverty in order to tempt to participation in his schemes. From a more
evil companion Glendower had not yet escaped: Crauford, by some means or
other, found out his abode, and lost no time in availing himself of the
discovery. In order fully to comprehend his unwearied persecution of
Glendower, it must constantly be remembered that to this persecution
he was bound by a necessity which, urgent, dark, and implicating life
itself, rendered him callous to every obstacle and unsusceptible of all
remorse. With the exquisite tact which he possessed, he never openly
recurred to his former proposal of fraud: he contented himself with
endeavouring to persuade Glendower to accept pecuniary assistance, but
in vain. The veil once torn from his character no craft could restore.
Through all his pretences and sevenfold hypocrisy Glendower penetrated
at once into his real motives: he was not to be duped by assurances of
friendship which he knew the very dissimilarities between their natures
rendered impossible. He had seen at the first, despite all allegations
to the contrary, that in the fraud Crauford had proposed, that person
could by no means be an uninfluenced and cold adviser. In after
conversations, Crauford, driven by the awful interest he had in
success from his usual consummateness of duplicity, betrayed in various
important minutiae how deeply he was implicated in the crime for which
he had argued; and not even the visible and progressive decay of his
wife and child could force the stern mind of Glendower into accepting
those wages of iniquity which he knew well were only offered as an
earnest or a snare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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