England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; English fiction -- 19th century
'From my point of view, less. For one thing, I can leave them entirely
in the hands of their mother; if they resemble her, they won't do
amiss. And there's no bother about work in life; they will have enough
to live upon--just enough. Of course, they may want to go out into the
world. I shall neither hinder nor encourage. I had rather they stayed
at home.'
'Don't lose sight of the possibility that by when they are grown up
there may be no such thing as "home". The word is dying out.'
Morton's pedantry led him again to murmur Latin----
'_Multa renascentur quoe jam cecidere_.'
'You're the happiest man I know, or ever shall know,' said Rolfe, with
more feeling than he cared to exhibit.
'Don't make me think about Croesus, King of Lydia. On the whole,
happiness means health, and health comes of occupation. In one point I
agree with you about yourself: it would have been better if someone had
found the right kind of work for you, and made you stick to it.
By-the-bye, how does your friend, the photographic man, get on?'
'Not at all badly. Did I tell you I had put money into it? I go there a
good deal, and pretend to do something.'
'Why pretend? Couldn't you find a regular job there for a few hours
every day?'
'I dare say I could. It'll be easier to get backwards and forwards from
Gunnersbury. How would you like,' he added, with a laugh, 'to live at
Gunnersbury?'
'What does it matter where one lives? I have something of a prejudice
against Hoxton or Bermondsey; but I think I could get along in most
other places. Gunnersbury is rather pleasant, I thought. Isn't it quite
near to Kew and Richmond?'
'Do those names attract you?'
'They have a certain charm for the rustic ear.'
'It's all one to me. Hughie will go to school, and make friends with
other children. You see, he's had no chance of it yet. We know a
hundred people or so, but have no intimates. Is there such a thing as
intimacy of families in London? I'm inclined to think not. Here, you go
into each other's houses without fuss and sham; you know each other,
and trust each other. In London there's no such comfort, at all events
for educated people. If you have a friend, he lives miles away; before
his children and yours can meet, they must travel for an hour and a
half by bus and underground.'
'I suppose it _must_ be London?' interrupted Morton.
'I'm afraid so,' Harvey replied absently, and his friend said no more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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