The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: A History of a Father and SonMeredith, George
General
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: A History of a Father and Son
Meredith, George
Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction
Mrs. Doria Forey was the eldest of the three sisters of the baronet,
a florid affable woman, with fine teeth, exceedingly fine light wavy
hair, a Norman nose, and a reputation for understanding men; and
that, with these practical creatures, always means the art of
managing them. She had married an expectant younger son of a good
family, who deceased before the fulfilment of his prospects; and,
casting about in her mind the future chances of her little daughter
and sole child, Clare, she marked down a probability. The far sight,
the deep determination, the resolute perseverance of her sex, where
a daughter is to be provided for and a man to be overthrown,
instigated her to invite herself to Raynham, where, with that
daughter, she fixed herself.
The other two Feverel ladies were the wife of Colonel Wentworth and
the widow of Mr. Justice Harley: and the only thing remarkable about
them was that they were mothers of sons of some distinction.
Austin Wentworth's story was of that wretched character which to be
comprehended, that justice should be dealt him, must be told out and
openly; which no one dares now do.
For a fault in early youth, redeemed by him nobly, according to his
light, he was condemned to undergo the world's harsh judgment: not
for the fault--for its atonement.
"--Married his mother's housemaid," whispered Mrs. Doria, with a
ghastly look, and a shudder at young men of republican sentiments,
which he was reputed to entertain.
"The compensation for Injustice," says the "Pilgrim's Scrip," "is,
that in that dark Ordeal we gather the worthiest around us."
And the baronet's fair friend, Lady Blandish, and some few true men
and women, held Austin Wentworth high.
He did not live with his wife; and Sir Austin, whose mind was bent
on the future of our species, reproached him with being barren to
posterity, while knaves were propagating.
The principal characteristic of the second nephew, Adrian Harley,
was his sagacity. He was essentially the wise youth, both in counsel
and in action.
"In action," the "Pilgrim's Scrip" observes, "Wisdom goes by
majorities."
Adrian had an instinct for the majority, and, as the world
invariably found him enlisted in its ranks, his appellation of wise
youth was acquiesced in without irony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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