The Pit Town Coronet: A Family Mystery, Volume 2 (of 3) — John Shaqi
The Pit Town Coronet: A Family Mystery, Volume 2 (of 3)Wills, C. J. (Charles James)
General
The Pit Town Coronet: A Family Mystery, Volume 2 (of 3)
Wills, C. J. (Charles James)
England -- Juvenile fiction; Families -- Juvenile fiction
It was certainly a great deal to Haggard's credit that he remained
tranquilly at The Warren for the space of three whole weeks. It was the
London season--just that time of year when flat-racing was at its
height; and at all the great meetings the Pandemonium set was
conspicuous. It might have been that he really liked his wife's society,
and that he found that the only way of getting her all to himself was,
as he was pleased to call it, to bury himself alive at King's Warren. It
has been said before that Haggard objected to the _rôle_ of Beauty's
Husband, but he had found that in town it was willy-nilly forced upon
him. He felt it trying that the instant Georgie showed herself in their
box at the play, the glasses of all the somebodies and half the
nobodies would be immediately levelled at her. Haggard was by no means a
jealous man. He was one of those who thoroughly enjoy being a
"popper-in" at the boxes of friends where beauty sits triumphant. He had
admired and rather laughed at the stoical philosophy of some of his
married friends, who were accustomed to calmly go off to enjoy their
brandies and sodas, under such circumstances, leaving their wives the
centre of a little circle of admirers--a circle of which he himself was
often a prominent ornament. But, though not a jealous man, he considered
it wise, when at the play, to be particularly attentive to Georgie.
Haggard believed in sheep dogs to a certain extent, but he believed
still more in the actual presence of the shepherd himself. But his
experiences of the last London season as a married man had convinced him
that the life of Corydon, particularly at the play, was not an existence
of unalloyed bliss. To Mrs. Charmington and her smart set, Haggard's
devotion to his wife was particularly touching: in vain would they
beckon him, or point to a vacant seat at their sides, with their fans;
like Love's Sentinel, sweet was the watch he kept, but, to tell the
truth, it bored him horribly.
It is undoubtedly pleasing to a man to find that his choice is
appreciated by all his friends, but it is rather trying to a married man
when he leaves his wife, even for a few moments, at a garden party, or
the inclosure of a race-course, on his return to always find her, by no
fault of her own, be it remembered, surrounded by a rapidly-increasing
throng of enthusiastic admirers. So Haggard resigned himself, with
considerable philosophy, to the innocent delights of country life and
the dulness of King's Warren.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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