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Read books online » Fiction » He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope (ebook reader with internet browser txt) 📖

Book online «He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope (ebook reader with internet browser txt) 📖». Author Anthony Trollope



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as Mr Gore

had never offered his services as an interpreter, and as the Italian

did not quite catch the subtle meanings of the Americans in Mr Gore’s

Tuscan version, and did not in the least wish to understand the things

that were explained to him, Mr Gore and the Italian began to think that

the two Americans were bores. ‘The truth is, Mr Spalding,’ said Mr

Gore, ‘I’ve got such a cold in my head, that I don’t think I can

explain it any more.’ Then Livy Spalding laughed aloud, and the two

American gentlemen began to eat their dinner. ‘It sounds ridiculous,

don’t it?’ said Mr Gore, in a whisper.

 

‘I ought not to have laughed, I know,’ said Livy.

 

‘The very best thing you could have done. I shan’t be troubled any more

now. The fact is, I know just nine words of Italian. Now there is a

difficulty in having to explain the whole theory of American politics

to an Italian, who doesn’t want to know anything about it, with so very

small a repertory of words at one’s command.’

 

‘How well you did it!’

 

‘Too well. I felt that. So well that, unless I had stopped it, I

shouldn’t have been able to say a word to you all through dinner. Your

laughter clenched it, and Buonarosci and I will be grateful to you for

ever.’

 

After the ladies went there was rather a bad half hour for Mr Glascock.

He was button-holed by the minister, and found it oppressive before he

was enabled to escape into the drawing-room. ‘Mr Glascock,’ said the

minister, ‘an English gentleman, sir, like you, who has the privilege

of an hereditary seat in your parliament’—Mr Glascock was not quite sure

whether he were being accused of having an hereditary seat in the House

of Commons, but he would not stop to correct any possible error on that

point—‘and who has been born to all the gifts of fortune, rank, and

social eminence, should never think that his education is complete till

he has visited our great cities in the west.’ Mr Glascock hinted that

he by no means conceived his education to be complete; but the minister

went on without attending to this. ‘Till you have seen, sir, what men

can do who are placed upon the earth with all God’s gifts of free

intelligence, free air, and a free soil, but without any of those other

good things which we are accustomed to call the gifts of fortune, you

can never become aware of the infinite ingenuity of man.’ There had

been much said before, but just at this moment Mr Gore and the American

left the room, and the Italian followed them briskly. Mr Glascock at

once made a decided attempt to bolt; but the minister was on the alert,

and was too quick for him. And he was by no means ashamed of what he

was doing. He had got his guest by the coat, and openly declared his

intention of holding him. ‘Let me keep you for a few minutes, sir,’

said he, ‘while I dilate on this point in one direction. In the

drawing-room female spells are too potent for us male orators. In going

among us, Mr Glascock, you must not look for luxury or refinement, for

you will find them not. Nor must you hope to encounter the highest

order of erudition. The lofty summits of acquired knowledge tower in

your country with an altitude we have not reached yet.’ ‘It’s very good

of you to say so,’ said Mr Glascock. ‘No, sir. In our new country and

in our new cities we still lack the luxurious perfection of fastidious

civilisation. But, sir, regard our level. That’s what I say to every

unprejudiced Britisher that comes among us; look at our level. And when

you have looked at our level, I think that you will confess that we

live on the highest table-land that the world has yet afforded to

mankind. You follow my meaning, Mr Glascock?’ Mr Glascock was not sure

that he did, but the minister went on to make that meaning clear. ‘It

is the multitude that with us is educated. Go into their houses, sir,

and see how they thumb their books. Look at the domestic correspondence

of our helps and servants, and see how they write and spell. We haven’t

got the mountains, sir, but our table-lands are the highest on which

the bright sun of our Almighty God has as yet shone with its

illuminating splendour in this improving world of ours! It is because

we are a young people, sir with nothing as yet near to us of the

decrepitude of age. The weakness of age, sir, is the penalty paid by

the folly of youth. We are not so wise, sir, but what we too shall

suffer from its effects as years roll over our heads.’ There was a

great deal more, but at last Mr Glascock did escape into the

drawing-room.

 

‘My uncle has been saying a few words to you perhaps,’ said Carry

Spalding.

 

‘Yes; he has,’ said Mr Glascock.

 

‘He usually does,’ said Carry Spalding.

CHAPTER XLVII

ABOUT FISHING, AND NAVIGATION, AND HEADDRESSES

 

The feud between Miss Stanbury and Mr Gibson raged violently in Exeter,

and produced many complications which were very difficult indeed of

management. Each belligerent party felt that a special injury had been

inflicted upon it. Mr Gibson was quite sure that he had been grossly

misused by Miss Stanbury the elder, and strongly suspected that Miss

Stanbury the younger had had a hand in this misconduct. It had been

positively asserted to him, at least so he thought, but in this was

probably in error, that the lady would accept him if he proposed to her.

All Exeter had been made aware of the intended compact. He, indeed, had

denied its existence to Miss French, comforting himself, as best he

might, with the reflection that all is fair in love and war; but when

he counted over his injuries he did not think of this denial. All

Exeter, so to say, had known of it. And yet, when he had come with his

proposal, he had been refused without a moment’s consideration, first

by the aunt, and then by the niece and, after that, had been violently

abused, and at last turned out of the house! Surely, no gentleman had

ever before been subjected to ill-usage so violent! But Miss Stanbury

the elder was quite as assured that the injury had been done to her. As

to the matter of the compact itself, she knew very well that she had

been as true as steel. She had done everything in her power to bring

about the marriage. She had been generous in her offers of money. She

had used all her powers of persuasion on Dorothy, and she had given

every opportunity to Mr Gibson. It was not her fault if he had not been

able to avail himself of the good things which she had put in his way.

He had first been, as she thought, ignorant and arrogant, fancying that

the good things ought to be made his own without any trouble on his

part, and then awkward, not knowing how to take the trouble when trouble

was necessary. And as to that matter of abusive language and turning

out of the house, Miss Stanbury was quite convinced that she was sinned

against, and not herself the sinner. She declared to Martha, more than

once, that Mr Gibson had used such language to her that, coming out of

a clergyman’s mouth, it had quite dismayed her. Martha, who knew her

mistress, probably felt that Mr Gibson had at least received as good as

he gave; but she had made no attempt to set her mistress right on that

point.

 

But the cause of Miss Stanbury’s sharpest anger was not to be found in

Mr Gibson’s conduct either before Dorothy’s refusal of his offer, or on

the occasion of his being turned out of the house. A base rumour was

spread about the city that Dorothy Stanbury had been offered to Mr

Gibson, that Mr Gibson had civilly declined the offer, and that hence

had arisen the wrath of the Juno of the Close. Now this was not to be

endured by Miss Stanbury. She had felt even in the moment of her

original anger against Mr Gibson that she was bound in honour not to

tell the story against him. She had brought him into the little

difficulty, and she at least would hold her tongue. She was quite sure

that Dorothy would never boast of her triumph. And Martha had been

strictly cautioned as indeed, also, had Brooke Burgess. The man had

behaved like an idiot, Miss Stanbury said; but he had been brought into

a little dilemma, and nothing should be said about it from the house in

the Close. But when the other rumour reached Miss Stanbury’s ears, when

Mrs Crumbie condoled with her on her niece’s misfortune, when Mrs

MacHugh asked whether Mr Gibson had not behaved rather badly to the

young lady, then our Juno’s celestial mind was filled with a divine

anger. But even then she did not declare the truth. She asked a

question of Mrs Crumbie, and was enabled, as she thought, to trace the

falsehood to the Frenches. She did not think that Mr Gibson could on a

sudden have become so base a liar. ‘Mr Gibson fast and loose with my

niece?’ she said to Mrs MacHugh. ‘You have not got the story quite

right, my dear friend. Pray, believe me there has been nothing of that

sort.’ ‘I dare say not,’ said Mrs MacHugh, ‘and I’m sure I don’t care.

Mr Gibson has been going to marry one of the French girls for the last

ten years, and I think he ought to make up his mind and do it at last.’

 

‘I can assure you he is quite welcome as far as Dorothy is concerned,’

said Miss Stanbury.

 

Without a doubt the opinion did prevail throughout Exeter that Mr

Gibson, who had been regarded time out of mind as the property of the

Miss Frenches, had been angled for by the ladies in the Close, that he

had nearly been caught, but that he had slipped the hook out of his

mouth, and was now about to subside quietly into the net which had been

originally prepared for him. Arabella French had not spoken loudly on

the subject, but Camilla had declared in more than one house that she

had most direct authority for stating that the gentleman had never

dreamed of offering to the young lady. ‘Why he should not do so if he

pleases, I don’t know,’ said Camilla. ‘Only the fact is that he has not

pleased. The rumour of course has reached him, and, as we happen to be

very old friends we have authority for denying it altogether.’ All this

came round to Miss Stanbury, and she was divine in her wrath.

 

‘If they drive me to it,’ she said to Dorothy, ‘I’ll have the whole

truth told by the bellman through the city, or I’ll publish it in the

County Gazette.’

 

‘Pray don’t say a word about it, Aunt Stanbury.’

 

‘It is those odious girls. He’s there now every day.’

 

‘Why shouldn’t he go there, Aunt Stanbury?’

 

‘If he’s fool enough, let him go. I don’t care where he goes. But I do

care about these lies. They wouldn’t dare to say it only they think my

mouth is closed. They’ve no honour themselves, but they screen

themselves behind mine.’

 

‘I’m sure they won’t find themselves mistaken in what they trust to,’

said Dorothy, with a spirit that her aunt had not expected from her.

Miss

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