The Disowned — CompleteLytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
The Disowned — Complete
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
English fiction -- 19th century
“Lord, Mr. Copperas,” said his helpmate, “how can you be so silly?
setting such an example to your son, too; never mind him, Adolphus, my
love; fie, child! a’n’t you ashamed of yourself? never put the spoon
in your cup till you have done tea: I must really send you to school to
learn manners. We have a very pretty little collection of books
here, Mr. Linden, if you would like to read an hour or two after
breakfast,--child, take your hands out of your pockets,--all the best
English classics I believe,--‘Telemachus,’ and Young’s ‘Night Thoughts,’
and ‘Joseph Andrews,’ and the ‘Spectator,’ and Pope’s Iliad, and
Creech’s Lucretius; but you will look over them yourself! This is
Liberty Hall, as well as Copperas Bower, Mr. Linden!”
“Well, my love,” said the stock-jobber, “I believe I must be off. Here
Tom,” Tom (Mr. de Warens had just entered the room with some more hot
water, to weaken still further “the poor remains of what was once”--the
tea!), “Tom, just run out and stop the coach; it will be by in five
minutes.”
“Have not I prayed and besought you, many and many a time, Mr.
Copperas,” said the lady, rebukingly, “not to call De Warens by his
Christian name? Don’t you know that all people in genteel life, who only
keep one servant, invariably call him by his surname, as if he were the
butler, you know?”
“Now, that is too good, my love,” said Copperas. “I will call poor Tom
by any surname you please, but I really can’t pass him off for a butler!
Ha--ha--ha--you must excuse me there, my love!”
“And pray, why not, Mr. Copperas? I have known many a butler bungle
more at a cork than he does; and pray tell me who did you ever see wait
better at dinner?”
“He wait at dinner, my love! it is not he who waits.”
“Who then, Mr. Copperas?”
“Why we, my love; it’s we who wait for dinner; but that’s the cook’s
fault, not his.”
“Pshaw! Mr. Copperas; Adolphus, my love, sit upright, darling.”
Here De Warens cried from the bottom of the stairs,--“Measter, the coach
be coming up.”
“There won’t be room for it to turn then,” said the facetious Mr.
Copperas, looking round the apartment as if he took the words literally.
“What coach is it, boy?”
Now that was not the age in which coaches scoured the city every half
hour, and Mr. Copperas knew the name of the coach as well as he knew his
own.
“It be the Swallow coach, sir.”
“Oh, very well: then since I have swallowed in the roll, I will now roll
in the Swallow--ha--ha--ha! Good-by, Mr. Linden.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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