Camilla; or, A Picture of Youth — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Camilla; or, A Picture of Youth
John Stuart Mill · en
Mr. Tyrold, whose own benign countenance could scarce refrain from a
smile at this unqualified opening, endeavoured to divert to some other
subject the grave astonishment of Dr. Orkborne, who, previously aware of
the age and ill health of the baronet, naturally concluded himself
called upon to solace the privacy of his life by reading or discourse,
but suggested not the most distant surmise he could be summoned as a
preceptor.
Sir Hugh, however, far from palliating any design, disguised not even a
feeling; he plunged deeper and deeper in the acknowledgment of his
ignorance, and soon set wholly apart the delicate circumspection of his
brother, by demanding of Dr. Orkborne what book he thought he had best
buy for a beginning?
Receiving from the wondering Doctor no answer, he good humouredly added,
'Come, don't be ashamed to name the easiest, for this reason; you must
know my plan is one of my own, which it is right to tell you. As fast as
I get on, I intend, for the sake of remembering my lesson, to send for
one of my nephews, and teach it all over again to him myself; which will
be doing service to us all at once.'
Mr. Tyrold now, though for a few moments he looked down, thought it best
to leave the matter to its own course, and Dr. Orkborne to his own
observations; fully persuaded, that the smiles Sir Hugh might excite
would be transient, and that no serious or lasting ridicule could be
attached to his character, in the mind of a worthy man, to whom time and
opportunity would be allowed for an acquaintance with its habitual
beneficence. He excused himself, therefore, from staying any longer,
somewhat to the distress of Dr. Orkborne, but hardly with the notice of
the baronet, whose eagerness in his new pursuit completely engrossed
him.
His late adventure, and his new heiress, now tormented him no more;
Indiana was forgotten, Camilla but little thought of, and his whole mind
became exclusively occupied by this fruitful expedient for retrieving
his lost time.
Dr. Orkborne, whose life had been spent in any study rather than that of
human nature, was so little able to enter into the character of Sir
Hugh, that nothing less than the respect he knew to be due to Mr.
Tyrold, could have saved him, upon his first reception, from a suspicion
that he had been summoned in mere mockery. The situation, however, was
peculiarly desirable to him, and the experiment, in the beginning,
corresponded with the hopes of Mr. Tyrold. Placed suddenly in ease and
affluence, Dr. Orkborne, with the most profound desire to please, sought
to sustain so convenient a post, by obliging the patron, whom he soon
saw it would be vain to attempt improving; while Sir Hugh, in return,
professed himself the most fortunate of men, that he had now met with a
scholar who had the good nature not to despise him.