Now all this may appear amusing and eccentric, and so on, to strangers;
but after the first hundred laughs or so with which paternal indulgence
dismisses the faults of childhood, Sir Charles became very grave.
The boy was his darling and his pride. He was ambitious for him. He
earnestly desired to solve for him a problem which is as impossible as
squaring the circle, viz., how to transmit our experience to our
children. The years and the health he had wasted before he knew Bella
Bruce, these he resolved his successor should not waste. He looked
higher for this beautiful boy than for himself. He had fully resolved
to be member for the county one day; but he did not care about it for
himself; it was only to pave the way for his successor; that Sir
Reginald, after a long career in the Commons, might find his way into
the House of Peers, and so obtain dignity in exchange for antiquity;
for, to tell the truth, the ancestors of four-fifths of the British
House of Peers had been hewers of wood and drawers of water at a time
when these Bassetts had already been gentlemen of distinction for
centuries.
All this love and this vicarious ambition were now mortified daily.
Some fathers could do wonders for a brilliant boy, and with him; they
expect him, and a dull boy appears; that is a bitter pill; but this was
worse.
Pages:
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422