FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253  
254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   >>   >|  
er must have more than--" I object to seeing oaths in print; unless it must be once in a way, as a needful point of character: probably the reader's sagacity will supply many omissions of mine in the eloquence of Sir Thomas Dillaway and others. But his calm spouse, nothing daunted, quietly whispered on--"You know, Thomas, you have boasted to me that your capital is doubling every year; penny-postage has made the stationery business most prosperous; and if you were wealthy when the old king knighted you as lord mayor, surely you can spare something handsome now for an only daughter, who--" "Ma'am!" almost barked the affectionate father, "if Maria marries money, she shall have money, and plenty of it, good girl; but if she will persist in wedding a beggar, she may starve, mum, starve, and all her poverty-stricken brats too, for any pickings they shall get out of my pocket. Ey? what? you pretend to read your Bible, mum--don't you know we're commanded to 'give to him that hath, and to take away from him that--'" "For shame, Sir Thomas Dillaway!" interrupted the wife, as well she might, for all her quietude: she was a good sort of woman, and her better nature aroused its wrath at this vicious application of a truth so just when applied to morals and graces, so bitterly iniquitous in the case of this world's wealth. I wish that our ex-lord mayor's distorted text may not be one of real and common usage. So, silencing her lord, whose character it was to be overbearing to the meek, but cringing to any thing like rebuke or opposition, she forthwith pushed her advantages, adding-- "Your income is now four thousand a-year, as you have told me, Thomas, every hour of every day, since your last lucky hit in the government contract for blue-elephants and whitey-browns. We have only John and Maria; and John gets enough out of his own stock-brokering business to keep his curricle and belong to clubs--and--alas! my fears are many for my poor dear boy--I often wish, Thomas, that our John was not so well supplied with money: whereas, poor Maria--" "Tush, ma'am, you're a fool, and have no respect at all for monied men. Jack's a rich man, mum--knows a trick or two, sticks at nothing on 'Change, shrewd fellow, and therefore, of course I don't stint him: ha! he's a regular Witney comforter, that boy--makes money--ay, for all his seeming extravagance, the clever little rogue knows how to keep it, too. If you only knew, ma'am, if you o
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253  
254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Thomas

 

business

 
starve
 

Dillaway

 

character

 
common
 

wealth

 

government

 

distorted

 

contract


cringing

 

adding

 
advantages
 

forthwith

 
pushed
 
rebuke
 
income
 

opposition

 

silencing

 

overbearing


thousand

 

fellow

 
shrewd
 

sticks

 

Change

 

regular

 
Witney
 

clever

 

comforter

 

extravagance


brokering

 

curricle

 

belong

 

whitey

 

elephants

 

browns

 

respect

 
monied
 

supplied

 

stationery


prosperous

 

postage

 
boasted
 
capital
 

doubling

 

wealthy

 

handsome

 
daughter
 

knighted

 

surely