Civil service -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
'At any rate you will not find him a fool,' said Norman, who was always
the more charitable of the two.
'Thank God for that!' said Mrs. Woodward,' and if he will come next
Saturday, let him by all means do so. Pray give my compliments to him,
and tell him how glad I shall be to see him.'
And thus was this wild wolf to be led into the sheep-cote; this infernal
navvy to be introduced among the angels of Surbiton Cottage. Mrs.
Woodward thought that she had a taste for reclaiming reprobates, and was
determined to try her hand on Charley Tudor.
Charley went, and his debut was perfectly successful. We have hitherto
only looked on the worst side of his character; but bad as his
character was, it had a better side. He was good-natured in the extreme,
kind-hearted and affectionate; and, though too apt to be noisy and
even boisterous when much encouraged, was not without a certain innate
genuine modesty, which the knowledge of his own iniquities had rather
increased than blunted; and, as Norman had said of him, he was no fool.
His education had not been good, and he had done nothing by subsequent
reading to make up for this deficiency; but he was well endowed with
mother-wit, and owed none of his deficiencies to nature's churlishness.
He came, and was well received. The girls thought he would surely get
drunk before he left the table, and Mrs. Woodward feared the austere
precision of her parlour-maid might be offended by some unworthy
familiarity; but no accident of either kind seemed to occur. He came to
the tea-table perfectly sober, and, as far as Mrs. Woodward could tell,
was unaware of the presence of the parlour-maiden.
On the Sunday morning, Charley went to church, just like a Christian.
Now Mrs. Woodward certainly had expected that he would have spent those
two hours in smoking and attacking the parlour-maid. He went to church,
however, and seemed in no whit astray there; stood up when others stood
up, and sat down when others sat down. After all, the infernal navvies,
bad as they doubtless were, knew something of the recognized manners of
civilized life.
Thus Charley Tudor ingratiated himself at Surbiton Cottage, and when
he left, received a kind intimation from its mistress that she would
be glad to see him again. No day was fixed, and so Charley could not
accompany his cousin and Harry Norman on the next Saturday; but it was
not long before he got another direct invitation, and so he also became
intimate at Hampton. There could be no danger of any one falling in love
with him, for Katie was still a child.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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