Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

that time as to be little more-whether it would not be better to abandon altogether country practice, and establish himself in the metropolis-London. A thousand pounds, advantageously spent, with a few introductions, would do a great deal in London, and that was not a third of what he had. And this great idea banished all remembrance of the past, all sense of the present-the young aspirant thought only of the future.

*

Five years have passed. Dr John Adams was 'settled' in a small 'showy' house in the vicinity of Mayfair; he had, the world said, made an excellent match. He married a very pretty girl, 'highly connected,' and was considered to be possessed of personal property, because, for so young a physician, Dr Adams lived in 'a superior style.' His brother Charles was still residing in the old farmhouse, to which, beyond the mere keeping it in repair, he had done but little, except, indeed, adding a wife to his establishment—a very gentle, loving, yet industrious girl, whose dower was too small to have been her only attraction. Thus both brothers might be said to be fairly launched in life.

It might be imagined that Charles Adams-having determined to reside in his native village, and remain, what his father and grandfather had been, a simple gentleman-farmer, and that rather on a small than a large scale-was altogether without that feeling of ambition which stimulates exertion and elevates the mind. Charles Adams had quite enough of this-which may be said, like fire, to be 'a good servant, but a bad master'-but he made it subservient to the dictates of prudence and a forethought, the gift, perhaps, that above all others we should most earnestly covet for those whose prosperity we would secure. To save his brother's portion of the freehold from going into the hands of strangers, he incurred a debt; and wisely-while he gave to his land all that was necessary to make it yield its increase-he abridged all other expenses, and was ably seconded in this by his wife, who resolved, until principal and interest were discharged, to live quietly and carefully. Charles contended that every appearance made beyond a man's means was an attempted fraud upon the public; while John shook his head, and answered that it might do very well for Charles to say so, as no one expected the sack that brought the grain to market to be of fine Holland, but that no man in a profession could get on in London without making an appearance.' At this Charles shrugged his shoulders, and thanked God he lived at Repton.

The brothers, as years moved rapidly on-engaged as they were by their mutual industry and success in their several fields of action -met but seldom. It was impossible to say which of the two continued the most prosperous. Dr Adams made several lucky hits; and having so obtained a position, was fortunate in having an abundance of patients in an intermediate sort of state-that is,

neither very well nor very ill. Of a really bland and courteous nature, he was kind and attentive to all, and it was certain that such of his patients as were only in moderate circumstances, got well long before those who were rich. His friends attributed this to his humanity as much as to his skill; his enemies said he did not like 'poor patients.' Perhaps there was a mingling of truth in both statements. The money he had received for his portion of the land was spent, certainly, before his receipts equalled his expenditure; and, strangely enough, by the time the farmer had paid off his debt, the doctor was involved, not to a large amount, but enough to render his 'appearance' to a certain degree fictitious. This embarrassment, to do him justice, was not of long continuance; he became the fashion; and before prosperity had turned his head by an influx of wealth, so as to render him careless, he got rid of his debt, and then his wife agreed with him 'that they might live as they pleased.'

It so happened that Charles Adams was present when this observation was made, and it spoke well for both the brothers that their different positions in society had not in the smallest degree cooled their boyhood's affection; not even the money transactions of former times, which so frequently create disunion, had changed them; they met less frequently, but they always met with pleasure, and separated with regret.

'Well!' exclaimed the doctor triumphantly, as he glanced around his splendid rooms, and threw himself into a chaise longue-then a new luxury-'well, it is certainly a charming feeling to be entirely out of debt.'

‘And yet,' said his wife, 'it would not be wise to confess it in our circle.'

'Why?' inquired Charles.

'Because it would prove that we had been in it,' answered the lady. 'At all events,' said John, 'now I shall not have to reproach myself with every extra expense, and think I ought to pay my debts first; now I may live exactly as I please.'

'I do not think so,' said Charles.

'Not think so!' repeated Mrs Adams in a tone of astonishment. 'Not think so!' exclaimed John. 'Do I not make the money myself?'

[ocr errors]

Granted, my dear fellow; to be sure you do,' said Charles. 'Then why should I not spend it as pleases me best? Is there any reason why I should not?'

As if to give the strongest dramatic effect to Charles's opinion, the nurse at that moment opened the drawing-room door, and four little laughing children rushed into the room.

"There are four reasons against your spending your income exactly as you please; unless, indeed, part of your plan be to provide for them,' answered Charles very seriously.

'I am sure,' observed Mrs Adams with the half-offended air of a weak woman when she hears the truth, 'John need not be told his duty to his children; he has always been a most affectionate father.'

[ocr errors]

'A father may be fond and foolish,' said Charles, who was peculiarly English in his mode of giving an opinion. For my part, I could not kiss my little Mary and Anne when I go to bed at night, if I did not feel I had already formed an accumulating fund for their future support-a support they will need all the more when their parents are taken from them, as they must be in the course of time.'

"They must marry,' said Mrs Adams.

'That is a chance,' replied Charles; 'women hang on hands nowa-days. At all events, by God's blessing, I am resolved that, if they are beauties, they shall never be forced by poverty to accept unworthy matches; if they are plain, they shall have enough to live upon without husbands.'

'That is easy enough for you, Charles,' said the doctor, 'who have had your broad acres to support you, and no necessity for expenditure or show of any kind; who might go from Monday morning till Saturday night in homespun, and never give anything beyond home-brewed and gooseberry wine, with a chance bottle of port, to your visitors; while I-Heaven help me-was obliged to dash in a well-appointed equipage, entertain, and appear to be doing a great deal in my profession, when a guinea would pine in solitude for a week together in my pocket.'

[ocr errors]

'I do not want to talk with you of the past, John,' said Charles; our ideas are more likely to agree now than they were ten or twelve years ago; I will speak of the future and present. You are now out of debt, in the very prime of life, and in the receipt of a splendid income; but do not, let me entreat you, spend it as it comes; lay by something for those children; provide for them either by insurance, or some of the many means that are open to us all. Do not, my dear brother, be betrayed by health, or the temptation for display, to live up to an income the nature of which is so essentially precarious.'

6

Really,' murmured Mrs Adams, 'you put one into very low spirits.'

Charles remained silent, waiting his brother's reply.

'My dear Charles,' he said at last, 'there is a great deal of truth in what you say-certainly a great deal; but I cannot change my style of living, strange as it may seem. If I did, I should lose my practice. And then I must educate my children; that is an imperative duty, is it not?'

Certainly it is; it is a part of the provision I have spoken of, but not the whole-a portion only. If you have the means to do both, it is your duty to do both; and you have the means. Nay,

my dear sister, do not seem angry or annoyed with me; it is for the sake of your children I speak; it is to prevent their ever knowing practically what we do know theoretically-that the world is a hard world; hard and unfeeling to those who need its aid. It is to prevent the possibility of their feeling a reverse.'

Mrs Adams burst into tears, and walked out of the room. Charles was convinced that she would not uphold his opinion.

'Certainly,' said John, 'I intend to provide for my children; but there is no hurry, and'

"There should be no hesitation in the case,' interrupted Charles; ' every man intends to provide for his children. God forbid that Í should imagine any man to be sufficiently wicked to say, "I have been the means of bringing this child into existence-I have brought it up in the indulgence of all the luxuries with which I indulged myself; and now I intend to withdraw them all from it, and leave it to fight its own way through the world." No man could look on the face of the innocent child nestling in your bosom and say that; but if you do not appropriate a portion of the means you possess to save that child from the "hereafter," you act as if you had resolved so to cast it on the wild waters of a turbulent world.'

'But, Charles, I intend to do all that you counsel; no wonder poor Lucy could not bear these words, when I, your own and only brother, find them stern and reproachful; no wonder that such should be the case; of course I intend to provide for my children.' 'Then DO IT,' said Charles.

"Why, so I will; but cannot in a moment. I have already said there is no hurry. You must give a little time.'

'The time may come, my dear John, when TIME will give you no time. You have been spending over and above your debt-more than, as the father of four children, you have any right to spend. The duty parents owe their children in this respect has preyed more strongly on my mind than usual, as I have been called on lately to witness its effects-to see its misery. One family at Repton, a family of eight children, has been left entirely without provision, by a man who enjoyed a situation of five hundred a year in quarterly payments.'

'That man is, however, guiltless. What could he save out of five hundred a year? How could he live on less?' replied the doctor.

Live upon four, and insure his life for the benefit of those children. Nay,' continued Charles in the vehemence of his feelings, 'the man who does not provide means of existence for his helpless children, until they are able to provide for themselves, cannot be called a reasonable person; and the legislature ought to oblige such to contribute to a fund to prevent the spread of the worst sort of pauperism-that which comes upon well-born children from the

carelessness or selfishness of their parents. God in his wisdom, and certainly in his mercy, removed the poor broken-hearted widow of the person I alluded to a month after his death; and the infant, whose nourishment from its birth had been mingled with bitterness, followed in a few days. I saw myself seven children crowd round the coffin that was provided by charity; I saw three taken to the workhouse, and the elder four distributed amongst kind-hearted hard-working people, who are trying to inure the young soft hands, accustomed to silken idleness, to the toils of homely industry. I ask you, John Adams, how the husband of that woman, the father of those children, can meet his God, when it is required of him to give an account of his stewardship?'

'It is very true-very shocking indeed,' observed Dr Adams. 'I certainly will do something to secure my wife and children from the possibility of anything like that, although, whatever were to happen to me, I am sure Lucy's family would prevent'

Charles broke in upon the sentence his brother found it difficult to complete—' And can you expect distant or even near relatives to perform what you, whose duty it is, neglect? Or would you leave those dear ones to the bitterness of dependence, when, by the sacrifice or curtailment of those luxurious habits which, if not closely watched, increase in number, and at last become necessaries, you could leave them in comfort and independence? We all hope for the leisure of a death-bed-awful enough, come as it may-awful, even when beyond its gloom we see the risen Sun of Righteousness in all his glory-awful, though our faith be strong in Him who is our strength; but if the consciousness of having neglected those duties which we were sent on earth to perform be with us then, dark, indeed, will be the valley of the Shadow of Death. I do not want, however, to read a homily, my dear brother, but to impress a truth; and I do hope that you will prevent the possibility of these dear children feeling what they must feel, enduring what they must endure, if you passed into another world without performing your duty towards them, and through them to society, in this.'

Mrs Adams met her brother-in-law that day (people five-andtwenty years ago did dine by day) at dinner with an air of offence. She was, of course, ladylike and quiet, but it was evident she was displeased. Everything at table was perfect, according to its kind. There was no guest present who was not superior in wealth and position to the doctor himself, and each was quite aware of the fact. Those who climb boldly, sometimes take a false step, but at all times make dangerous ones. When Charles looked round upon the splendid plate and stylish servants-when the children were ushered in after dinner, and every tongue was loud in praises of their beauty -an involuntary shudder passed through his heart, and he almost accused himself of selfishness, when he was comforted by the remembrance of the provision made for his own little ones, who

« ForrigeFortsæt »