Doctor Thorne Anthony Trollope (best english books to read for beginners txt) đ
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- Author: Anthony Trollope
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And how changed has been the bustle of that once noisy inn to the present deathlike silence of its green courtyard! There, a lame ostler crawls about with his hands thrust into the capacious pockets of his jacket, feeding on memory. That weary pair of omnibus jades, and three sorry posters, are all that now grace those stables where horses used to be stalled in close contiguity by the dozen; where twenty grains apiece, abstracted from every feed of oats consumed during the day, would have afforded a daily quart to the lucky pilferer.
Come, my friend, and discourse with me. Let us know what are thy ideas of the inestimable benefits which science has conferred on us in these, our latter days. How dost thou, among others, appreciate railways and the power of steam, telegraphs, telegrams, and our new expresses? But indifferently, you say. âTime was Iâve zeed vifteen pair oâ âosses go out of this âere yard in vour-and-twenty hour; and now there beâant vifteen, no, not ten, in vour-and-twenty days! There was the duikâ ânot this âun; he beâant no gude; but this âunâs vatherâ âwhy, when heâd come down the road, the cattle did be a-going, vour days an eend. Hereâd be the tooter and the young genâlmen, and the governess and the young leddies, and then the servantsâ âtheyâd be alâays the grandest folk of allâ âand then the duik and the doochessâ âLord love âee, zur; the money did fly in them days! But nowâ ââ and the feeling of scorn and contempt which the lame ostler was enabled by his native talent to throw into the word ânow,â was quite as eloquent against the power of steam as anything that has been spoken at dinners, or written in pamphlets by the keenest admirers of latter-day lights.
âWhy, luke at this âere town,â continued he of the sieve, âthe grass be a-growing in the very streets;â âthat canât be no gude. Why, luke âee here, zur; I do be a-standing at this âere gateway, just this way, hour arter hour, and my heyes is hopen mostly;â âI zees whoâs a-coming and whoâs a-going. Nobodyâs a-coming and nobodyâs a-going; that canât be no gude. Luke at that there homnibus; why, darn meâ ââ and now, in his eloquence at this peculiar point, my friend became more loud and powerful than everâ ââwhy, darn me, if maister harns enough with that there bus to put hiron on them âossesâ feet, Iâllâ âbeâ âblowed!â And as he uttered this hypothetical denunciation on himself he spoke very slowly, bringing out every word as it were separately, and lowering himself at his knees at every sound, moving at the same time his right hand up and down. When he had finished, he fixed his eyes upon the ground, pointing downwards, as if there was to be the site of his doom if the curse that he had called down upon himself should ever come to pass; and then, waiting no further converse, he hobbled away, melancholy, to his deserted stables.
Oh, my friend! my poor lame friend! it will avail nothing to tell thee of Liverpool and Manchester; of the glories of Glasgow, with her flourishing banks; of London, with its third millions of inhabitants; of the great things which commerce is doing for this nation of thine! What is commerce to thee, unless it be commerce in posting on that worn-out, all but useless great western turnpike-road? There is nothing left for thee but to be carted away as rubbishâ âfor thee and for many of us in these now prosperous days; oh, my melancholy, care-ridden friend!
Courcy Castle was certainly a dull place to look at, and Frank, in his former visits, had found that the appearance did not belie the reality. He had been but little there when the earl had been at Courcy; and as he had always felt from his childhood a peculiar distaste to the governance of his aunt the countess, this perhaps may have added to his feeling of dislike. Now, however, the castle was to be fuller than he had ever before known it; the earl was to be at home; there was some talk of the Duke of Omnium coming for a day or two, though that seemed doubtful; there was some faint doubt of Lord Porlock; Mr. Moffat, intent on the coming electionâ âand also, let us hope, on his coming blissâ âwas to be one of the guests; and there was also to be the great Miss Dunstable.
Frank, however, found that those grandees were not expected quite immediately. âI might go back to Greshamsbury for three or four days as she is not to be here,â he said naively to his aunt, expressing, with tolerable perspicuity, his feeling, that he regarded his visit to Courcy Castle quite as a matter of business. But the countess would hear of no such arrangement. Now that she had got him, she was not going to let him fall back into the perils of Miss Thorneâs intrigues, or even of Miss Thorneâs propriety. âIt is quite essential,â she said, âthat you should be here a few days before her, so that she may see that you are at home.â Frank did not understand the reasoning; but he felt himself unable to rebel, and he therefore, remained there, comforting himself, as best he
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