The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: A History of a Father and SonMeredith, George
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The Ordeal of Richard Feverel: A History of a Father and Son
Meredith, George
Domestic fiction; England -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction
Adrian gave Sir Austin an able version of his son's behaviour and
adventures; dwelling upon this sudden taciturnity when he heard of
his father's resolution not to see him. The wise youth saw that his
chief was mollified behind his moveless mask, and went to bed, and
Horace, leaving Sir Austin in his study. Long hours the baronet sat
alone. The house had not its usual influx of Feverels that day.
Austin Wentworth was staying at Poer Hall, and had only come over
for an hour. At midnight the house breathed sleep. Sir Austin put on
his cloak and cap, and took the lamp to make his rounds. He
apprehended nothing special, but with a mind never at rest he
constituted himself the sentinel of Raynham. He passed the chamber
where the Great-Aunt Grantley lay, who was to swell Richard's
fortune, and so perform her chief business on earth. By her door he
murmured, "Good creature! you sleep with a sense of duty done," and
paced on, reflecting, "She has not made money a demon of discord,"
and blessed her. He had his thoughts at Hippias's somnolent door,
and to them the world might have subscribed.
A monomaniac at large, watching over sane people in slumber! thinks
Adrian Harley, as he hears Sir Austin's footfall, and truly that was
a strange object to see.--Where is the fortress that has not one
weak gate? where the man who is sound at each particular angle? Ay,
meditates the recumbent cynic, more or less mad is not every
mother's son? Favourable circumstances--good air, good company, two
or three good rules rigidly adhered to--keep the world out of
Bedlam. But, let the world fly into a passion, and is not Bedlam the
safest abode for it?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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