Sylvia's Lovers

At such a place as Monkshaven all these opinions were held in

excess. One or two might, for the mere sake of argument, dispute on

certain points of history or government; but they took care to be

very sure of their listeners before such arguments touched on

anything of the present day; for it had been not unfrequently found

that the public duty of prosecuting opinions not your own overrode

the private duty of respecting confidence. Most of the Monkshaven

politicians confined themselves, therefore, to such general

questions as these: 'Could an Englishman lick more than four

Frenchmen at a time?' 'What was the proper punishment for members of

the Corresponding Society (correspondence with the French

directory), hanging and quartering, or burning?' 'Would the

forthcoming child of the Princess of Wales be a boy or a girl? If a

girl, would it be more loyal to call it Charlotte or Elizabeth?'

The Fosters were quite secure enough of their guests this evening to

have spoken freely on politics had they been so inclined. And they

did begin on the outrages which had been lately offered to the king

in crossing St James's Park to go and open the House of Lords; but

soon, so accustomed were their minds to caution and restraint, the

talk dropped down to the high price of provisions. Bread at 1s.

3d. the quartern loaf, according to the London test. Wheat at

120s. per quarter, as the home-baking northerners viewed the

matter; and then the conversation died away to an ominous silence.

John looked at Jeremiah, as if asking him to begin. Jeremiah was the

host, and had been a married man. Jeremiah returned the look with

the same meaning in it. John, though a bachelor, was the elder

brother. The great church bell, brought from the Monkshaven

monastery centuries ago, high up on the opposite hill-side, began to

ring nine o'clock; it was getting late. Jeremiah began:

'It seems a bad time for starting any one on business, wi' prices

and taxes and bread so dear; but John and I are getting into years,

and we've no children to follow us: yet we would fain draw out of

some of our worldly affairs. We would like to give up the shop, and

stick to banking, to which there seemeth a plain path. But first

there is the stock and goodwill of the shop to be disposed on.'

A dead pause. This opening was not favourable to the hopes of the

two moneyless young men who had been hoping to succeed their masters

by the more gradual process of partnership. But it was only the kind

of speech that had been agreed upon by the two brothers with a view

of impressing on Hepburn and Coulson the great and unusual

responsibility of the situation into which the Fosters wished them

to enter. In some ways the talk of many was much less simple and

straightforward in those days than it is now. The study of effect

shown in the London diners-out of the last generation, who prepared

their conversation beforehand, was not without its parallel in

humbler spheres, and for different objects than self-display. The

brothers Foster had all but rehearsed the speeches they were about

to make this evening. They were aware of the youth of the parties to

whom they were going to make a most favourable proposal; and they

dreaded that if that proposal was too lightly made, it would be too

lightly considered, and the duties involved in it too carelessly

entered upon. So the role of one brother was to suggest, that of

the other to repress. The young men, too, had their reserves. They

foresaw, and had long foreseen, what was coming that evening. They

were impatient to hear it in distinct words; and yet they had to

wait, as if unconscious, during all the long preamble. Do age and

youth never play the same parts now? To return. John Foster replied

to his brother: