dupe because, as a matter of course, he does not get what he wants.
I made no bargain at Liverpool,--at least, no cheap bargain; but
I have made arrangements for a sufficient supply of a first-rate
unadulterated article at its proper market price, and I do not fear
but the results will be remunerative." And then, as they went home in
the railway carriage the mother talked to her son about his farming
as though she had forgotten her other trouble, and she explained to
him how he was to dine with Sir Peregrine.
"I shall be delighted to dine with Sir Peregrine," said Lucius, "and
very well pleased to have an opportunity of talking to him about his
own way of managing his land; but, mother, I will not promise to be
guided by so very old-fashioned a professor."
Mr. Furnival, when he was left alone, sat thinking over the interview
that had passed. At first, as was most natural, he bethought himself
of his wife; and I regret to say that the love which he bore to her,
and the gratitude which he owed to her, and the memory of all that
they had suffered and enjoyed together, did not fill his heart with
thoughts towards her as tender as they should have done. A black
frown came across his brow as he meditated on her late intrusion,
and he made some sort of resolve that that kind of thing should be
prevented for the future. He did not make up his mind how he would
prevent it,--a point which husbands sometimes overlook in their
marital resolutions. And then, instead of counting up her virtues,
he counted up his own. Had he not given her everything; a house such
as she had not dreamed of in her younger days? servants, carriages,
money, comforts, and luxuries of all sorts? He had begrudged her
nothing, had let her have her full share of all his hard-earned
gains; and yet she could be ungrateful for all this, and allow her
head to be filled with whims and fancies as though she were a young
girl,--to his great annoyance and confusion. He would let her know
that his chambers, his law chambers, should be private even from her.
He would not allow himself to become a laughing-stock to his own
clerks and his own brethren through the impertinent folly of a woman
who owed to him everything;--and so on! I regret to say that he never
once thought of those lonely evenings in Harley Street, of those
long days which the poor woman was doomed to pass without the only
companionship which was valuable to her. He never thought of that vow
which th
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