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Article FATHER AND SON. ← Page 25 of 30 →
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Father And Son.
undermined , and her nerves ruined , and that she could not drive or Avalk out unless he were her companion ; at others she Avas so affectionate , so gentle , so fond , that he could not tear himself from her side ; or , again , she AVOUIC ! detain him for hours in the library , and compel him to examine into the accounts of the land steward , and to give audiences to his tenants .
Who requires to be told that the human heart is treacherous and " desperately wicked , " or that it can in time accustom itself to circumstances from Avhich it originally shrunk Avith terror and disgust ? Who requires to be reminded that conscience , pertinacious as it may be for a time , can be ultimately silenced ? The fact is , unhappily , too true ; and thus , by the time that The
Grange was once more loud Avith revelry , Sydney Leicester appeared to have as totally forgotten the existence of his father as the most thoughtless of his guests . And during these long days and weeks the miserable old man , exposed by the position of his dreary apartment to every vicissitude of temperature , Avas suffering bitterly from the sharp and piercing cold of a severe winter . The heated brazier had never been
renewed—the lady of the mansion , amid her multifarious duties , had forgotten to give any orders upon the subject ; and the female attendant Avho had replaced the discarded valet of Mr . Leicester , preferred the comfort of the servants' hall to any unnecessary exertion for that of her helpless charge . And helpless he in truth had soon become ; for , scorning all complaint , and
accepting his martyrdom as it had been assigned to him , he uttered neither request nor expostulation , even when he found himself so crippled by rheumatism that it Avas with difficulty he could crawl from his chair to his bed ; and if occasionally the torture which he endured Avrung a groan from his overcharged heart , there Avere none by to hear it—none whose sleep could be
broken , or Avhose pleasures could be marred , by any pang of his . And still , as he sat striving to conceal his sufferings in the well-padded chair , Avhich was his only refuge against the biting cold , that bright child gambolled about him ; for , with the usual carelessness of his age , he had soon overcome the astonishment and fear which the first aspect of his grandfather ' s apartment had produced ; and his love for the old man had urged him to his first act of Avilful disobedience . The head nurse and
her dependant had received strict orders from their mistress not to suffer the young heir to visit Mr . Leicester after his removal from his Avell-warmed and well-furnished rooms , upon the plea that such constant contact with an aged person must be un-Avholesome for Master Montagu , while on the other hand his
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Father And Son.
undermined , and her nerves ruined , and that she could not drive or Avalk out unless he were her companion ; at others she Avas so affectionate , so gentle , so fond , that he could not tear himself from her side ; or , again , she AVOUIC ! detain him for hours in the library , and compel him to examine into the accounts of the land steward , and to give audiences to his tenants .
Who requires to be told that the human heart is treacherous and " desperately wicked , " or that it can in time accustom itself to circumstances from Avhich it originally shrunk Avith terror and disgust ? Who requires to be reminded that conscience , pertinacious as it may be for a time , can be ultimately silenced ? The fact is , unhappily , too true ; and thus , by the time that The
Grange was once more loud Avith revelry , Sydney Leicester appeared to have as totally forgotten the existence of his father as the most thoughtless of his guests . And during these long days and weeks the miserable old man , exposed by the position of his dreary apartment to every vicissitude of temperature , Avas suffering bitterly from the sharp and piercing cold of a severe winter . The heated brazier had never been
renewed—the lady of the mansion , amid her multifarious duties , had forgotten to give any orders upon the subject ; and the female attendant Avho had replaced the discarded valet of Mr . Leicester , preferred the comfort of the servants' hall to any unnecessary exertion for that of her helpless charge . And helpless he in truth had soon become ; for , scorning all complaint , and
accepting his martyrdom as it had been assigned to him , he uttered neither request nor expostulation , even when he found himself so crippled by rheumatism that it Avas with difficulty he could crawl from his chair to his bed ; and if occasionally the torture which he endured Avrung a groan from his overcharged heart , there Avere none by to hear it—none whose sleep could be
broken , or Avhose pleasures could be marred , by any pang of his . And still , as he sat striving to conceal his sufferings in the well-padded chair , Avhich was his only refuge against the biting cold , that bright child gambolled about him ; for , with the usual carelessness of his age , he had soon overcome the astonishment and fear which the first aspect of his grandfather ' s apartment had produced ; and his love for the old man had urged him to his first act of Avilful disobedience . The head nurse and
her dependant had received strict orders from their mistress not to suffer the young heir to visit Mr . Leicester after his removal from his Avell-warmed and well-furnished rooms , upon the plea that such constant contact with an aged person must be un-Avholesome for Master Montagu , while on the other hand his