Toilers of Babylon: A NovelFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
Toilers of Babylon: A Novel
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
"In speaking of Mr. Seymour you would naturally suppose that you were
speaking of an Englishman, the name being unmistakably English. But
Mr. Seymour is not an Englishman, and therefore the name must be
assumed. As to this I have no definite information, but it is so
certainly. It did not occur to me to mention to you that Mr. Seymour
was probably a foreigner, the matter seeming to be of such small
importance. He speaks English fluently, with the slightest accent;
speaks also French, German, Italian, and Russian, as to the precisely
correct accent of any one of which I am not a competent judge. I am
not given to curiosity, and have a habit of believing what I am told;
that is, I do not look much below the surface of things. Now, this may
lead a man into a scrape.
"Were I alone, without wife and child, I should, I dare say, allow
myself to drift according to circumstances, but I am bound to consider
you. Well, then, Mr. Seymour, with whose right name I am not
acquainted, has ideas with which I am not sure whether I agree; he has
a mission with which I am not sure whether I sympathize. There are
large movements in public affairs which require deep investigation
before one finally and firmly makes up one's mind. Take, for example,
the revolutionary movement--the idea that all people should be upon an
equality, the mission to bring this about. I had better not write to
greater length upon this theme. If you do not quite understand my
meaning I will explain it more fully when we are together again. In
saying that I am deeply anxious to get back to England soon, and that
I must by some means manage it, I am thinking more of you than of
myself. Shortly before writing the letter which I sent to you
yesterday, I allowed myself to be led away by certain disclosures
which were made to me for the purpose of binding me to a certain
course--Mr. Seymour and the friends he meets and makes thinking me
ripe for it, perhaps, and giving me credit for being cleverer than I
am; and it was an amateur enthusiasm which drove me to conclusions to
which I would prefer not to commit myself--again, more for you and our
dear little one's sake than for my own. There! The confession is made;
perhaps you can thread your way through my mysterious allusions. And
now, my darling--"
Then the letter went on, and was concluded with expressions of love
and tenderness, and occasional drifting into whimsical by-paths, in
which the nature of the old Kingsley Nansie loved so well was
faithfully depicted.
On that evening Nansie nerved her courage to speak to her uncle about
Kingsley's desire to return to England, and her own that he should do
so without delay.
"He is wasting his time," she said, "and cannot but feel it deeply
that I am living upon your kindness."
"To which you are heartily welcome, Nansie," said Mr. Loveday.
"I know that, dear uncle; but is it as it should be?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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