England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Social classes -- England -- Fiction
Clare Court was still vacant, and during that summer Dorothy used to
wheel the perambulator of her baby round and round the domains of which
he had been robbed. For his name she had gone back to her old choice of
Lucius, and she felt that by doing so she was conferring upon this
posthumous son the greatest compliment in her capacity. The dowager was
at first a little distressed that he was not christened Anthony, but
when Dorothy read to her, out of a volume of Clarendon she borrowed from
the rector, that this namesake was "'a person of such prodigious parts
of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness and delight in
conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity and goodness to
mankind, and of that primitive simplicity and integrity of life, that if
there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed civil war than
that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable to all
posterity.' 'Thus,'" Dorothy read on, "'fell that incomparable young
man, in the four-and-thirtieth year of his age, having so much
despatched the true business of life that the eldest rarely attain to
that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not into the world with
more innocency.'"
"Yes, yes," sighed the dowager. "Dear old Tony! He was in his
thirty-second year. Dear old boy!"
Dorothy looked at her mother-in-law to see if she were serious; when she
saw that indeed she was she had not the heart to say that the eulogy
might as a description of Tony's life be considered somewhat elevated.
After all, Tony had died for his king and his country; Lord Falkland had
died for his king only.
On the anniversary of the fifth earl's death, when the wind at dusk was
cooing round Cherrington Cottage like a mighty dove, Dorothy was seized
with a sudden restlessness and a desire to encounter the mysterious and
uneasy air of this gusty twilight of late summer. Her son was fast
asleep, with both his grandmother and his aunt Arabella ready to
minister to his most incomprehensible baby wish and serve him, were it
possible, with the paradisal milk of which he dreamed. He had been
restless all day, and now that he was sleeping so calmly Dorothy felt
that she could allow herself to take air and exercise. Owing to the
continued emptiness of the Court, she had grown into the habit of
walking about the park whenever she felt inclined, and except for the
solemnity and silence of the house itself she was hardly conscious that
she was no longer the mistress of Clare, because the lodge-keepers and
various servants of the estate were familiar to her and always showed
how glad they were to see her among them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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