It would be indeed intolerable if his
children got in his way! The very notion put him in a fever.
If that tiresome fellow, Dell, had not interrupted them the night
before, what would have happened?
He had all the consciousness of a man still in the prime of life, in
spite of his white hair; for he had married at twenty-one, and had
never--since they grew up--seemed to himself very much older than
his elder children. He had but a very dim memory of his wife.
Sometimes he felt as if, notwithstanding the heat of boyish passion
which had led him to marry her, he had never really known her. There
were moments when he had an uncomfortable suspicion that for some
years before her death she had silently but irrevocably passed
judgment upon him, and had withdrawn her inner life from him.
Friends of hers had written to him after her death of beautiful
traits and qualities in her of which he himself had known nothing.
In any case they were not traits and qualities which appealed in the
long run to a man of his pursuits and temperament.
Pages:
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373