No Name - Wilkie Collins (free e books to read online .TXT) š
- Author: Wilkie Collins
Book online Ā«No Name - Wilkie Collins (free e books to read online .TXT) šĀ». Author Wilkie Collins
āYes,ā said Frank. āThank you. It will be rather difficult to go in and win, at first. Of course, as you have always told me, a manās business is to conquer his difficulties, and not to talk about them. At the same time, I wish I didnāt feel quite so loose as I do in my figures. Itās discouraging to feel loose in oneās figures.ā āOh, yes; Iāll write and tell you how I get on. Iām very much obliged by your kindness, and very sorry I couldnāt succeed with the engineering. I think I should have liked engineering better than trade. It canāt be helped now, can it? Thank you, again. Goodbye.ā
So he drifted away into the misty commercial futureā āas aimless, as helpless, as gentleman-like as ever.
IXThree months passed. During that time Frank remained in London; pursuing his new duties, and writing occasionally to report himself to Mr. Vanstone, as he had promised.
His letters were not enthusiastic on the subject of mercantile occupations. He described himself as being still painfully loose in his figures. He was also more firmly persuaded than everā ānow when it was unfortunately too lateā āthat he preferred engineering to trade. In spite of this conviction; in spite of headaches caused by sitting on a high stool and stooping over ledgers in unwholesome air; in spite of want of society, and hasty breakfasts, and bad dinners at chophouses, his attendance at the office was regular, and his diligence at the desk unremitting. The head of the department in which he was working might be referred to if any corroboration of this statement was desired. Such was the general tenor of the letters; and Frankās correspondent and Frankās father differed over them as widely as usual. Mr. Vanstone accepted them as proofs of the steady development of industrious principles in the writer. Mr. Clare took his own characteristically opposite view. āThese London men,ā said the philosopher, āare not to be trifled with by louts. They have got Frank by the scruff of the neckā āhe canāt wriggle himself freeā āand he makes a merit of yielding to sheer necessity.ā
The three monthsā interval of Frankās probation in London passed less cheerfully than usual in the household at Combe-Raven.
As the summer came nearer and nearer, Mrs. Vanstoneās spirits, in spite of her resolute efforts to control them, became more and more depressed.
āI do my best,ā she said to Miss Garth; āI set an example of cheerfulness to my husband and my childrenā ābut I dread July.ā Norahās secret misgivings on her sisterās account rendered her more than usually serious and uncommunicative, as the year advanced. Even Mr. Vanstone, when July drew nearer, lost something of his elasticity of spirit. He kept up appearances in his wifeās presenceā ābut on all other occasions there was now a perceptible shade of sadness in his look and manner. Magdalen was so changed since Frankās departure that she helped the general depression, instead of relieving it. All her movements had grown languid; all her usual occupations were pursued with the same weary indifference; she spent hours alone in her own room; she lost her interest in being brightly and prettily dressed; her eyes were heavy, her nerves were irritable, her complexion was altered visibly for the worseā āin one word, she had become an oppression and a weariness to herself and to all about her. Stoutly as Miss Garth contended with these growing domestic difficulties, her own spirits suffered in the effort. Her memory reverted, oftener and oftener, to the March morning when the master and mistress of the house had departed for London, and then the first serious change, for many a year past, had stolen over the family atmosphere. When was that atmosphere to be clear again? When were the clouds of change to pass off before the returning sunshine of past and happier times?
The spring and the early summer wore away. The dreaded month of July came, with its airless nights, its cloudless mornings, and its sultry days.
On the fifteenth of the month, an event happened which took everyone but Norah by surprise. For the second time, without the slightest apparent reasonā āfor the second time, without a word of warning beforehandā āFrank suddenly reappeared at his fatherās cottage.
Mr. Clareās lips opened to hail his sonās return, in the old character of the ābad shillingā; and closed again without uttering a word. There was a portentous composure in Frankās manner which showed that he had other news to communicate than the news of his dismissal. He answered his fatherās sardonic look of inquiry by at once explaining that a very important proposal for his future benefit had been made to him, that morning, at the office. His first idea had been to communicate the details in writing; but the partners had, on reflection, thought that the necessary decision might be more readily obtained by a personal interview with his father and his friends.
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