Either because his interest in this work thrust the incident of the

signature from his memory, or for some reason of which Caleb was more

conscious, Mrs. Garth remained ignorant of the affair.

Since it occurred, a change had come over Fred's sky, which altered his

view of the distance, and was the reason why his uncle Featherstone's

present of money was of importance enough to make his color come and

go, first with a too definite expectation, and afterwards with a

proportionate disappointment. His failure in passing his examination,

had made his accumulation of college debts the more unpardonable by his

father, and there had been an unprecedented storm at home. Mr. Vincy

had sworn that if he had anything more of that sort to put up with,

Fred should turn out and get his living how he could; and he had never

yet quite recovered his good-humored tone to his son, who had

especially enraged him by saying at this stage of things that he did

not want to be a clergyman, and would rather not "go on with that."

Fred was conscious that he would have been yet more severely dealt with

if his family as well as himself had not secretly regarded him as Mr.

Featherstone's heir; that old gentleman's pride in him, and apparent

fondness for him, serving in the stead of more exemplary conduct--just

as when a youthful nobleman steals jewellery we call the act

kleptomania, speak of it with a philosophical smile, and never think of

his being sent to the house of correction as if he were a ragged boy

who had stolen turnips. In fact, tacit expectations of what would be

done for him by uncle Featherstone determined the angle at which most

people viewed Fred Vincy in Middlemarch; and in his own consciousness,

what uncle Featherstone would do for him in an emergency, or what he

would do simply as an incorporated luck, formed always an immeasurable

depth of aerial perspective. But that present of bank-notes, once

made, was measurable, and being applied to the amount of the debt,

showed a deficit which had still to be filled up either by Fred's

"judgment" or by luck in some other shape. For that little episode of

the alleged borrowing, in which he had made his father the agent in

getting the Bulstrode certificate, was a new reason against going to

his father for money towards meeting his actual debt. Fred was keen

enough to foresee that anger would confuse distinctions, and that his

denial of having borrowed expressly on the strength of his uncle's will

would be taken as a falsehood. He had gone to his father and told him

one vexatious affair, and he had left another untold: in such cases the

complete revelation always produces the impression of a previous

duplicity. Now Fred piqued himself on keeping clear of lies, and even

fibs; he often shrugged his shoulders and made a significant grimace at

what he called Rosamond's fibs (it is only brothers who can associate

such ideas with a lovely girl); and rather than incur the accusation of

falsehood he would even incur some trouble and self-restraint. It was

under strong inward pressure of this kind that Fred had taken the wise

step of depositing the eighty pounds with his mother. It was a pity

that he had not at once given them to Mr. Garth; but he meant to make

the sum complete with another sixty, and with a view to this, he had

kept twenty pounds in his own pocket as a sort of seed-corn, which,

planted by judgment, and watered by luck, might yield more than

threefold--a very poor rate of multiplication when the field is a young

gentleman's infinite soul, with all the numerals at command.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024