Philip entered at an inn of court, and kept his terms duly,
though he vowed that his conscience would not allow him to
practise (I am not defending the opinions of this
squeamish moralist — only stating them). His
acquaintance here lay amongst the Temple Bohemians. He had
part of a set of chambers in Parchment Buildings, to be
sure, and you might read on a door, “Mr. Cassidy, Mr. P.
Firmin, Mr. Vanjohn;” but were these gentlemen likely to
advance Philip in life? Cassidy was a newspaper reporter,
and young Vanjohn a betting man who was always attending
races. Dr. Firmin had a horror of newspaper men, and
considered they belonged to the dangerous classes, and
treated them with a distant affability.“Look at the
governor, Pen,” Philip would say to the present
chronicler. “He always watches you with a secret
suspicion, and has never got over his wonder at your being
a gentleman. I like him when he does the Lord Chatham
business, and condescends towards you, and gives you his
hand to kiss. He considers he is your better,cambridgeleathersatchel.com, don’t you
see? Oh, he is a paragon of a père noble, the governor is
,Cambridge Satchel US! and I ought to be a young Sir Charles Grandison.” And
the young scapegrace would imitate his father’s smile,
and the doctor’s manner of laying his hand to his breast
and putting out his neat right leg, all of which movements
or postures were, I own, rather pompous and affected.
Whatever the paternal faults were, you will say that
Philip was not the man to criticize them; nor in this
matter shall I attempt to defend him. My wife has a little
pensioner whom she found wandering in the street, and
singing a little artless song. The child could not speak
yet — only warble its little song; and had thus strayed
away from home, and never once knew of her danger. We kept
her for a while, until the police found her parents. Our
servants bathed her, and dressed her, and sent her home in
such neat clothes as the poor little wretch had never seen
until fortune sent her in the way of those good-natured
folks. She pays them frequent visits. When she goes away
from us, she is always neat and clean; when she comes to
us, she is in rags and dirty. A wicked little slattern!
And, pray, whose duty is it to keep her clean? and has not
the parent in this case forgotten to honour her daughter?
Suppose there is some reason which prevents Philip from
loving his father — that the doctor has neglected to
cleanse the boy’s heart, and by carelessness and
indifference has sent him erring into the world. If so,
woe be to that doctor! If I take my little son to the
tavern to dinner, shall I not assuredly pay? If I suffer
him in tender youth to go astray,Cambridge Satchel US, and harm comes to him,
whose is the fault?Perhaps the very outrages and
irregularities of which Phil’s father complained, were
in some degree occasioned by the elder’s own faults,Cambridge Satchel US. He
was so laboriously obsequious to great men, that the son
in a rage defied and avoided them. He was so grave, so
polite, so complimentary, so artificial, that Phil, in
revolt at such hypocrisy, chose to be frank, cynical, and
familiar. The grave old bigwigs whom the doctor loved to
assemble, bland and solemn men of the ancient school, who
dined solemnly with each other at their solemn old houses
— such men as Lord Botley, Baron Bumpsher, Cricklade (
who published Travels in Asia Minor, 4to, 1804), the
Bishop of St. Bees, and the like — wagged their old
heads sadly when they collogued in clubs,Cambridge Satchel, and talked of
poor Firmin’s scapegrace of a son. He would come to no
good; he was giving his good father much pain; he had been
in all sorts of rows and disturbances at the university,
and the Master of Boniface repo Related articles:
发表评论 评论 (0 个评论)