in his own
hands, and not to let it go to sticks and staves, possibly, in the hands
of others. He did not, for his part, see any mark of gentle breeding
and fine feeling in devolving his responsibilities on others, and only
reserving that tie to the shop which had to do with pecuniary profits.
As for his university training and academic degree, if they did not
benefit him in all circumstances they were not much worth. The town of
Redcross was caught in a trap. The gentle-folks of the place had already
received him as a man and a brother, and they could not refuse to know
him any longer because he stuck to the paternal shop, though they might
exercise their discretion in looking coldly on him in future. For that
matter, there was another opinion among the older professional men--the
Rector, whose tithes were only quarter paid; Dr. Millar, whose paying
patients were no longer able to call him in on all occasions; Carey, the
banker, whose private bank, it was whispered darkly, was struggling in
deep waters; Colonel Russell, who had come home from India on half-pay
and his savings, which every year he found more inadequate for the
expenses of an increasing family. All these gray-headed men, growing
haggard and careworn, agreed that in the present depressed state of the
commercial world, young Robinson was showing himself a sensible fellow
and ought to be commended for his decision. They declared that they were
the more inclined to take him up because of it. It was their wives,
where they had wives, and especially their daughters, with the young men
who had not known the brunt of the battle, and felt inclined to clutch
their professional dignities and privileges, that were of a different
mind. Girls like the Millars turned up their saucy little noses at the
shop. They thought it was mean-spirited and vulgar-minded, "low" of Tom
Robinson to sit down with such a calling. They held it audacious of him
to lift his eyes to Dora, and to follow his eyes with his voice, silent
fellow though he was generally, in asking her from her father.

Certainly it did not help to redeem Tom Robinson's drawbacks in the
judgment of a rash young world that he lacked his late father's fine
presence. Though gentleman-like enough, he was insignificant in person,
and he had little to say for himself. Probably it would have struck his
critics as little short of profane to make the comparison, otherwise
there is a great example that might have stood him