The Expedition of Humphry ClinkerSmollett, T. (Tobias)
General
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Epistolary fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Travelers -- Fiction
Jery accompanied her ladyship to her house, that he might have an
opportunity to restore the etuis to Barton, and advise him to give
up his suit, which was so disagreeable to his sister, against whom,
however, he returned much irritated--Lady Griskin had assured him that
Liddy’s heart was pre-occupied; and immediately the idea of Wilson
recurring to his imagination, his family-pride took the alarm. He
denounced vengeance against the adventurer, and was disposed to be
very peremptory with his sister; but I desired he would suppress his
resentment, until I should have talked with her in private.
The poor girl, when I earnestly pressed her on this head, owned with
a flood of tears, that Wilson had actually come to the Hot Well at
Bristol, and even introduced himself into our lodgings as a Jew pedlar;
but that nothing had passed betwixt them, further than her begging him
to withdraw immediately, if he had any regard for her peace of mind:
that he had disappeared accordingly, after having attempted to prevail
upon my sister’s maid, to deliver a letter; which, however, she refused
to receive, though she had consented to carry a message, importing that
he was a gentleman of a good family; and that, in a very little time, he
would avow his passion in that character--She confessed, that although
he had not kept his word in this particular, he was not yet altogether
indifferent to her affection; but solemnly promised, she would never
carry on any correspondence with him, or any other admirer, for the
future, without the privity and approbation of her brother and me.
By this declaration, she made her own peace with Jery; but the
hot-headed boy is more than ever incensed against Wilson, whom he now
considers as an impostor, that harbours some infamous design upon the
honour of his family--As for Barton he was not a little mortified to
find his present returned, and his addresses so unfavourably received;
but he is not a man to be deeply affected by such disappointments; and
I know not whether he is not as well pleased with being discarded
by Liddy, as he would have been with a permission to prosecute his
pretensions, at the risque of being every day exposed to the revenge or
machinations of Tabby, who is not to be slighted with impunity.--I
had not much time to moralize on these occurrences; for the house
was visited by a constable and his gang, with a warrant from Justice
Buzzard, to search the box of Humphry Clinker, my footman,--who was just
apprehended as a highwayman. This incident threw the whole family into
confusion. My sister scolded the constable for presuming to enter the
lodgings of a gentleman on such an errand, without having first asked,
and obtained permission; her maid was frightened into fits, and Liddy
shed tears of compassion for the unfortunate Clinker, in whose box,
however, nothing was found to confirm the suspicion of robbery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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