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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Brother Jacob, by George Eliot
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Brother Jacob
+
+Author: George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans]
+
+Release Date: May, 2000 [eBook #2171]
+[Most recently updated: June 23, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: David Price
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER JACOB ***
+
+
+
+
+Brother Jacob
+
+by George Eliot
+
+
+Contents
+
+ CHAPTER I
+ CHAPTER II
+ CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that of
+blindly taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been
+sufficiently considered. How is the son of a British yeoman, who has
+been fed principally on salt pork and yeast dumplings, to know that
+there is satiety for the human stomach even in a paradise of glass jars
+full of sugared almonds and pink lozenges, and that the tedium of life
+can reach a pitch where plum-buns at discretion cease to offer the
+slightest excitement? Or how, at the tender age when a confectioner
+seems to him a very prince whom all the world must envy—who breakfasts
+on macaroons, dines on meringues, sups on twelfth-cake, and fills up
+the intermediate hours with sugar-candy or peppermint—how is he to
+foresee the day of sad wisdom, when he will discern that the
+confectioner’s calling is not socially influential, or favourable to a
+soaring ambition? I have known a man who turned out to have a
+metaphysical genius, incautiously, in the period of youthful buoyancy,
+commence his career as a dancing-master; and you may imagine the use
+that was made of this initial mistake by opponents who felt themselves
+bound to warn the public against his doctrine of the Inconceivable. He
+could not give up his dancing-lessons, because he made his bread by
+them, and metaphysics would not have found him in so much as salt to
+his bread. It was really the same with Mr. David Faux and the
+confectionery business. His uncle, the butler at the great house close
+by Brigford, had made a pet of him in his early boyhood, and it was on
+a visit to this uncle that the confectioners’ shops in that brilliant
+town had, on a single day, fired his tender imagination. He carried
+home the pleasing illusion that a confectioner must be at once the
+happiest and the foremost of men, since the things he made were not
+only the most beautiful to behold, but the very best eating, and such
+as the Lord Mayor must always order largely for his private recreation;
+so that when his father declared he must be put to a trade, David chose
+his line without a moment’s hesitation; and, with a rashness inspired
+by a sweet tooth, wedded himself irrevocably to confectionery. Soon,
+however, the tooth lost its relish and fell into blank indifference;
+and all the while, his mind expanded, his ambition took new shapes,
+which could hardly be satisfied within the sphere his youthful ardour
+had chosen. But what was he to do? He was a young man of much mental
+activity, and, above all, gifted with a spirit of contrivance; but
+then, his faculties would not tell with great effect in any other
+medium than that of candied sugars, conserves, and pastry. Say what you
+will about the identity of the reasoning process in all branches of
+thought, or about the advantage of coming to subjects with a fresh
+mind, the adjustment of butter to flour, and of heat to pastry, is
+_not_ the best preparation for the office of prime minister; besides,
+in the present imperfectly-organized state of society, there are social
+barriers. David could invent delightful things in the way of
+drop-cakes, and he had the widest views of the sugar department; but in
+other directions he certainly felt hampered by the want of knowledge
+and practical skill; and the world is so inconveniently constituted,
+that the vague consciousness of being a fine fellow is no guarantee of
+success in any line of business.
+
+This difficulty pressed with some severity on Mr. David Faux, even
+before his apprenticeship was ended. His soul swelled with an impatient
+sense that he ought to become something very remarkable—that it was
+quite out of the question for him to put up with a narrow lot as other
+men did: he scorned the idea that he could accept an average. He was
+sure there was nothing average about him: even such a person as Mrs.
+Tibbits, the washer-woman, perceived it, and probably had a preference
+for his linen. At that particular period he was weighing out
+gingerbread nuts; but such an anomaly could not continue. No position
+could be suited to Mr. David Faux that was not in the highest degree
+easy to the flesh and flattering to the spirit. If he had fallen on the
+present times, and enjoyed the advantages of a Mechanic’s Institute, he
+would certainly have taken to literature and have written reviews; but
+his education had not been liberal. He had read some novels from the
+adjoining circulating library, and had even bought the story of _Inkle
+and Yarico_, which had made him feel very sorry for poor Mr. Inkle; so
+that his ideas might not have been below a certain mark of the literary
+calling; but his spelling and diction were too unconventional.
+
+When a man is not adequately appreciated or comfortably placed in his
+own country, his thoughts naturally turn towards foreign climes; and
+David’s imagination circled round and round the utmost limits of his
+geographical knowledge, in search of a country where a young gentleman
+of pasty visage, lipless mouth, and stumpy hair, would be likely to be
+received with the hospitable enthusiasm which he had a right to expect.
+Having a general idea of America as a country where the population was
+chiefly black, it appeared to him the most propitious destination for
+an emigrant who, to begin with, had the broad and easily recognizable
+merit of whiteness; and this idea gradually took such strong possession
+of him that Satan seized the opportunity of suggesting to him that he
+might emigrate under easier circumstances, if he supplied himself with
+a little money from his master’s till. But that evil spirit, whose
+understanding, I am convinced, has been much overrated, quite wasted
+his time on this occasion. David would certainly have liked well to
+have some of his master’s money in his pocket, if he had been sure his
+master would have been the only man to suffer for it; but he was a
+cautious youth, and quite determined to run no risks on his own
+account. So he stayed out his apprenticeship, and committed no act of
+dishonesty that was at all likely to be discovered, reserving his plan
+of emigration for a future opportunity. And the circumstances under
+which he carried it out were in this wise. Having been at home a week
+or two partaking of the family beans, he had used his leisure in
+ascertaining a fact which was of considerable importance to him,
+namely, that his mother had a small sum in guineas painfully saved from
+her maiden perquisites, and kept in the corner of a drawer where her
+baby-linen had reposed for the last twenty years—ever since her son
+David had taken to his feet, with a slight promise of bow-legs which
+had not been altogether unfulfilled. Mr. Faux, senior, had told his son
+very frankly, that he must not look to being set up in business by
+_him_: with seven sons, and one of them a very healthy and
+well-developed idiot, who consumed a dumpling about eight inches in
+diameter every day, it was pretty well if they got a hundred apiece at
+his death. Under these circumstances, what was David to do? It was
+certainly hard that he should take his mother’s money; but he saw no
+other ready means of getting any, and it was not to be expected that a
+young man of his merit should put up with inconveniences that could be
+avoided. Besides, it is not robbery to take property belonging to your
+mother: she doesn’t prosecute you. And David was very well behaved to
+his mother; he comforted her by speaking highly of himself to her, and
+assuring her that he never fell into the vices he saw practised by
+other youths of his own age, and that he was particularly fond of
+honesty. If his mother would have given him her twenty guineas as a
+reward of this noble disposition, he really would not have stolen them
+from her, and it would have been more agreeable to his feelings.
+Nevertheless, to an active mind like David’s, ingenuity is not without
+its pleasures: it was rather an interesting occupation to become
+stealthily acquainted with the wards of his mother’s simple key (not in
+the least like Chubb’s patent), and to get one that would do its work
+equally well; and also to arrange a little drama by which he would
+escape suspicion, and run no risk of forfeiting the prospective hundred
+at his father’s death, which would be convenient in the improbable case
+of his _not_ making a large fortune in the “Indies.”
+
+First, he spoke freely of his intention to start shortly for Liverpool
+and take ship for America; a resolution which cost his good mother some
+pain, for, after Jacob the idiot, there was not one of her sons to whom
+her heart clung more than to her youngest-born, David. Next, it
+appeared to him that Sunday afternoon, when everybody was gone to
+church except Jacob and the cowboy, was so singularly favourable an
+opportunity for sons who wanted to appropriate their mothers’ guineas,
+that he half thought it must have been kindly intended by Providence
+for such purposes. Especially the third Sunday in Lent; because Jacob
+had been out on one of his occasional wanderings for the last two days;
+and David, being a timid young man, had a considerable dread and hatred
+of Jacob, as of a large personage who went about habitually with a
+pitchfork in his hand.
+
+Nothing could be easier, then, than for David on this Sunday afternoon
+to decline going to church, on the ground that he was going to tea at
+Mr. Lunn’s, whose pretty daughter Sally had been an early flame of his,
+and, when the church-goers were at a safe distance, to abstract the
+guineas from their wooden box and slip them into a small canvas
+bag—nothing easier than to call to the cowboy that he was going, and
+tell him to keep an eye on the house for fear of Sunday tramps. David
+thought it would be easy, too, to get to a small thicket and bury his
+bag in a hole he had already made and covered up under the roots of an
+old hollow ash, and he had, in fact, found the hole without a moment’s
+difficulty, had uncovered it, and was about gently to drop the bag into
+it, when the sound of a large body rustling towards him with something
+like a bellow was such a surprise to David, who, as a gentleman gifted
+with much contrivance, was naturally only prepared for what he
+expected, that instead of dropping the bag gently he let it fall so as
+to make it untwist and vomit forth the shining guineas. In the same
+moment he looked up and saw his dear brother Jacob close upon him,
+holding the pitchfork so that the bright smooth prongs were a yard in
+advance of his own body, and about a foot off David’s. (A learned
+friend, to whom I once narrated this history, observed that it was
+David’s guilt which made these prongs formidable, and that the “mens
+nil conscia sibi” strips a pitchfork of all terrors. I thought this
+idea so valuable, that I obtained his leave to use it on condition of
+suppressing his name.) Nevertheless, David did not entirely lose his
+presence of mind; for in that case he would have sunk on the earth or
+started backward; whereas he kept his ground and smiled at Jacob, who
+nodded his head up and down, and said, “Hoich, Zavy!” in a painfully
+equivocal manner. David’s heart was beating audibly, and if he had had
+any lips they would have been pale; but his mental activity, instead of
+being paralysed, was stimulated. While he was inwardly praying (he
+always prayed when he was much frightened)—“Oh, save me this once, and
+I’ll never get into danger again!”—he was thrusting his hand into his
+pocket in search of a box of yellow lozenges, which he had brought with
+him from Brigford among other delicacies of the same portable kind, as
+a means of conciliating proud beauty, and more particularly the beauty
+of Miss Sarah Lunn. Not one of these delicacies had he ever offered to
+poor Jacob, for David was not a young man to waste his jujubes and
+barley-sugar in giving pleasure to people from whom he expected
+nothing. But an idiot with equivocal intentions and a pitchfork is as
+well worth flattering and cajoling as if he were Louis Napoleon. So
+David, with a promptitude equal to the occasion, drew out his box of
+yellow lozenges, lifted the lid, and performed a pantomime with his
+mouth and fingers, which was meant to imply that he was delighted to
+see his dear brother Jacob, and seized the opportunity of making him a
+small present, which he would find particularly agreeable to the taste.
+Jacob, you understand, was not an intense idiot, but within a certain
+limited range knew how to choose the good and reject the evil: he took
+one lozenge, by way of test, and sucked it as if he had been a
+philosopher; then, in as great an ecstacy at its new and complex savour
+as Caliban at the taste of Trinculo’s wine, chuckled and stroked this
+suddenly beneficent brother, and held out his hand for more; for,
+except in fits of anger, Jacob was not ferocious or needlessly
+predatory. David’s courage half returned, and he left off praying;
+pouring a dozen lozenges into Jacob’s palm, and trying to look very
+fond of him. He congratulated himself that he had formed the plan of
+going to see Miss Sally Lunn this afternoon, and that, as a
+consequence, he had brought with him these propitiatory delicacies: he
+was certainly a lucky fellow; indeed, it was always likely Providence
+should be fonder of him than of other apprentices, and since he _was_
+to be interrupted, why, an idiot was preferable to any other sort of
+witness. For the first time in his life, David thought he saw the
+advantage of idiots.
+
+As for Jacob, he had thrust his pitchfork into the ground, and had
+thrown himself down beside it, in thorough abandonment to the
+unprecedented pleasure of having five lozenges in his mouth at once,
+blinking meanwhile, and making inarticulate sounds of gustative
+content. He had not yet given any sign of noticing the guineas, but in
+seating himself he had laid his broad right hand on them, and
+unconsciously kept it in that position, absorbed in the sensations of
+his palate. If he could only be kept so occupied with the lozenges as
+not to see the guineas before David could manage to cover them! That
+was David’s best hope of safety; for Jacob knew his mother’s guineas;
+it had been part of their common experience as boys to be allowed to
+look at these handsome coins, and rattle them in their box on high days
+and holidays, and among all Jacob’s narrow experiences as to money,
+this was likely to be the most memorable.
+
+“Here, Jacob,” said David, in an insinuating tone, handing the box to
+him, “I’ll give ’em all to you. Run!—make haste!—else somebody’ll come
+and take ’em.”
+
+David, not having studied the psychology of idiots, was not aware that
+they are not to be wrought upon by imaginative fears. Jacob took the
+box with his left hand, but saw no necessity for running away. Was ever
+a promising young man wishing to lay the foundation of his fortune by
+appropriating his mother’s guineas obstructed by such a day-mare as
+this? But the moment must come when Jacob would move his right hand to
+draw off the lid of the tin box, and then David would sweep the guineas
+into the hole with the utmost address and swiftness, and immediately
+seat himself upon them. Ah, no! It’s of no use to have foresight when
+you are dealing with an idiot: he is not to be calculated upon. Jacob’s
+right hand was given to vague clutching and throwing; it suddenly
+clutched the guineas as if they had been so many pebbles, and was
+raised in an attitude which promised to scatter them like seed over a
+distant bramble, when, from some prompting or other—probably of an
+unwonted sensation—it paused, descended to Jacob’s knee, and opened
+slowly under the inspection of Jacob’s dull eyes. David began to pray
+again, but immediately desisted—another resource having occurred to
+him.
+
+“Mother! zinnies!” exclaimed the innocent Jacob. Then, looking at
+David, he said, interrogatively, “Box?”
+
+“Hush! hush!” said David, summoning all his ingenuity in this severe
+strait. “See, Jacob!” He took the tin box from his brother’s hand, and
+emptied it of the lozenges, returning half of them to Jacob, but
+secretly keeping the rest in his own hand. Then he held out the empty
+box, and said, “Here’s the box, Jacob! The box for the guineas!” gently
+sweeping them from Jacob’s palm into the box.
+
+This procedure was not objectionable to Jacob; on the contrary, the
+guineas clinked so pleasantly as they fell, that he wished for a
+repetition of the sound, and seizing the box, began to rattle it very
+gleefully. David, seizing the opportunity, deposited his reserve of
+lozenges in the ground and hastily swept some earth over them. “Look,
+Jacob!” he said, at last. Jacob paused from his clinking, and looked
+into the hole, while David began to scratch away the earth, as if in
+doubtful expectation. When the lozenges were laid bare, he took them
+out one by one, and gave them to Jacob. “Hush!” he said, in a loud
+whisper, “Tell nobody—all for Jacob—hush—sh—sh! Put guineas in the
+hole—they’ll come out like this!” To make the lesson more complete, he
+took a guinea, and lowering it into the hole, said, “Put in _so_.”
+Then, as he took the last lozenge out, he said, “Come out _so_,” and
+put the lozenge into Jacob’s hospitable mouth.
+
+Jacob turned his head on one side, looked first at his brother and then
+at the hole, like a reflective monkey, and, finally, laid the box of
+guineas in the hole with much decision. David made haste to add every
+one of the stray coins, put on the lid, and covered it well with earth,
+saying in his meet coaxing tone—
+
+“Take ’m out to-morrow, Jacob; all for Jacob! Hush—sh—sh!”
+
+Jacob, to whom this once indifferent brother had all at once become a
+sort of sweet-tasted fetish, stroked David’s best coat with his
+adhesive fingers, and then hugged him with an accompaniment of that
+mingled chuckling and gurgling by which he was accustomed to express
+the milder passions. But if he had chosen to bite a small morsel out of
+his beneficent brother’s cheek, David would have been obliged to bear
+it.
+
+And here I must pause, to point out to you the short-sightedness of
+human contrivance. This ingenious young man, Mr. David Faux, thought he
+had achieved a triumph of cunning when he had associated himself in his
+brother’s rudimentary mind with the flavour of yellow lozenges. But he
+had yet to learn that it is a dreadful thing to make an idiot fond of
+you, when you yourself are not of an affectionate disposition:
+especially an idiot with a pitchfork—obviously a difficult friend to
+shake off by rough usage.
+
+It may seem to you rather a blundering contrivance for a clever young
+man to bury the guineas. But, if everything had turned out as David had
+calculated, you would have seen that his plan was worthy of his
+talents. The guineas would have lain safely in the earth while the
+theft was discovered, and David, with the calm of conscious innocence,
+would have lingered at home, reluctant to say good-bye to his dear
+mother while she was in grief about her guineas; till at length, on the
+eve of his departure, he would have disinterred them in the strictest
+privacy, and carried them on his own person without inconvenience. But
+David, you perceive, had reckoned without his host, or, to speak more
+precisely, without his idiot brother—an item of so uncertain and
+fluctuating a character, that I doubt whether he would not have puzzled
+the astute heroes of M. de Balzac, whose foresight is so remarkably at
+home in the future.
+
+It was clear to David now that he had only one alternative before him:
+he must either renounce the guineas, by quietly putting them back in
+his mother’s drawer (a course not unattended with difficulty); or he
+must leave more than a suspicion behind him, by departing early the
+next morning without giving notice, and with the guineas in his pocket.
+For if he gave notice that he was going, his mother, he knew, would
+insist on fetching from her box of guineas the three she had always
+promised him as his share; indeed, in his original plan, he had counted
+on this as a means by which the theft would be discovered under
+circumstances that would themselves speak for his innocence; but now,
+as I need hardly explain, that well-combined plan was completely
+frustrated. Even if David could have bribed Jacob with perpetual
+lozenges, an idiot’s secrecy is itself betrayal. He dared not even go
+to tea at Mr. Lunn’s, for in that case he would have lost sight of
+Jacob, who, in his impatience for the crop of lozenges, might scratch
+up the box again while he was absent, and carry it home—depriving him
+at once of reputation and guineas. No! he must think of nothing all the
+rest of this day, but of coaxing Jacob and keeping him out of mischief.
+It was a fatiguing and anxious evening to David; nevertheless, he dared
+not go to sleep without tying a piece of string to his thumb and great
+toe, to secure his frequent waking; for he meant to be up with the
+first peep of dawn, and be far out of reach before breakfast-time. His
+father, he thought, would certainly cut him off with a shilling; but
+what then? Such a striking young man as he would be sure to be well
+received in the West Indies: in foreign countries there are always
+openings—even for cats. It was probable that some Princess Yarico would
+want him to marry her, and make him presents of very large jewels
+beforehand; after which, he needn’t marry her unless he liked. David
+had made up his mind not to steal any more, even from people who were
+fond of him: it was an unpleasant way of making your fortune in a world
+where you were likely to surprised in the act by brothers. Such alarms
+did not agree with David’s constitution, and he had felt so much nausea
+this evening that no doubt his liver was affected. Besides, he would
+have been greatly hurt not to be thought well of in the world: he
+always meant to make a figure, and be thought worthy of the best seats
+and the best morsels.
+
+Ruminating to this effect on the brilliant future in reserve for him,
+David by the help of his check-string kept himself on the alert to
+seize the time of earliest dawn for his rising and departure. His
+brothers, of course, were early risers, but he should anticipate them
+by at least an hour and a half, and the little room which he had to
+himself as only an occasional visitor, had its window over the
+horse-block, so that he could slip out through the window without the
+least difficulty. Jacob, the horrible Jacob, had an awkward trick of
+getting up before everybody else, to stem his hunger by emptying the
+milk-bowl that was “duly set” for him; but of late he had taken to
+sleeping in the hay-loft, and if he came into the house, it would be on
+the opposite side to that from which David was making his exit. There
+was no need to think of Jacob; yet David was liberal enough to bestow a
+curse on him—it was the only thing he ever did bestow gratuitously. His
+small bundle of clothes was ready packed, and he was soon treading
+lightly on the steps of the horse-block, soon walking at a smart pace
+across the fields towards the thicket. It would take him no more than
+two minutes to get out the box; he could make out the tree it was under
+by the pale strip where the bark was off, although the dawning light
+was rather dimmer in the thicket. But what, in the name of—burnt
+pastry—was that large body with a staff planted beside it, close at the
+foot of the ash-tree? David paused, not to make up his mind as to the
+nature of the apparition—he had not the happiness of doubting for a
+moment that the staff was Jacob’s pitchfork—but to gather the
+self-command necessary for addressing his brother with a sufficiently
+honeyed accent. Jacob was absorbed in scratching up the earth, and had
+not heard David’s approach.
+
+“I say, Jacob,” said David in a loud whisper, just as the tin box was
+lifted out of the hole.
+
+Jacob looked up, and discerning his sweet-flavoured brother, nodded and
+grinned in the dim light in a way that made him seem to David like a
+triumphant demon. If he had been of an impetuous disposition, he would
+have snatched the pitchfork from the ground and impaled this fraternal
+demon. But David was by no means impetuous; he was a young man greatly
+given to calculate consequences, a habit which has been held to be the
+foundation of virtue. But somehow it had not precisely that effect in
+David: he calculated whether an action would harm himself, or whether
+it would only harm other people. In the former case he was very timid
+about satisfying his immediate desires, but in the latter he would risk
+the result with much courage.
+
+“Give it me, Jacob,” he said, stooping down and patting his brother.
+“Let us see.”
+
+Jacob, finding the lid rather tight, gave the box to his brother in
+perfect faith. David raised the lids and shook his head, while Jacob
+put his finger in and took out a guinea to taste whether the
+metamorphosis into lozenges was complete and satisfactory.
+
+“No, Jacob; too soon, too soon,” said David, when the guinea had been
+tasted. “Give it me; we’ll go and bury it somewhere else; we’ll put it
+in yonder,” he added, pointing vaguely toward the distance.
+
+David screwed on the lid, while Jacob, looking grave, rose and grasped
+his pitchfork. Then, seeing David’s bundle, he snatched it, like a too
+officious Newfoundland, stuck his pitchfork into it and carried it over
+his shoulder in triumph as he accompanied David and the box out of the
+thicket.
+
+What on earth was David to do? It would have been easy to frown at
+Jacob, and kick him, and order him to get away; but David dared as soon
+have kicked the bull. Jacob was quiet as long as he was treated
+indulgently; but on the slightest show of anger, he became
+unmanageable, and was liable to fits of fury which would have made him
+formidable even without his pitchfork. There was no mastery to be
+obtained over him except by kindness or guile. David tried guile.
+
+“Go, Jacob,” he said, when they were out of the thicket—pointing
+towards the house as he spoke; “go and fetch me a spade—a spade. But
+give _me_ the bundle,” he added, trying to reach it from the fork,
+where it hung high above Jacob’s tall shoulder.
+
+But Jacob showed as much alacrity in obeying as a wasp shows in leaving
+a sugar-basin. Near David, he felt himself in the vicinity of lozenges:
+he chuckled and rubbed his brother’s back, brandishing the bundle
+higher out of reach. David, with an inward groan, changed his tactics,
+and walked on as fast as he could. It was not safe to linger. Jacob
+would get tired of following him, or, at all events, could be eluded.
+If they could once get to the distant highroad, a coach would overtake
+them, David would mount it, having previously by some ingenious means
+secured his bundle, and then Jacob might howl and flourish his
+pitchfork as much as he liked. Meanwhile he was under the fatal
+necessity of being very kind to this ogre, and of providing a large
+breakfast for him when they stopped at a roadside inn. It was already
+three hours since they had started, and David was tired. Would no coach
+be coming up soon? he inquired. No coach for the next two hours. But
+there was a carrier’s cart to come immediately, on its way to the next
+town. If he could slip out, even leaving his bundle behind, and get
+into the cart without Jacob! But there was a new obstacle. Jacob had
+recently discovered a remnant of sugar-candy in one of his brother’s
+tail-pockets; and, since then, had cautiously kept his hold on that
+limb of the garment, perhaps with an expectation that there would be a
+further development of sugar-candy after a longer or shorter interval.
+Now every one who has worn a coat will understand the sensibilities
+that must keep a man from starting away in a hurry when there is a
+grasp on his coat-tail. David looked forward to being well received
+among strangers, but it might make a difference if he had only one tail
+to his coat.
+
+He felt himself in a cold perspiration. He could walk no more: he must
+get into the cart and let Jacob get in with him. Presently a cheering
+idea occurred to him: after so large a breakfast, Jacob would be sure
+to go to sleep in the cart; you see at once that David meant to seize
+his bundle, jump out, and be free. His expectation was partly
+fulfilled: Jacob did go to sleep in the cart, but it was in a peculiar
+attitude—it was with his arms tightly fastened round his dear brother’s
+body; and if ever David attempted to move, the grasp tightened with the
+force of an affectionate boa-constrictor.
+
+“Th’ innicent’s fond on you,” observed the carrier, thinking that David
+was probably an amiable brother, and wishing to pay him a compliment.
+
+David groaned. The ways of thieving were not ways of pleasantness. Oh,
+why had he an idiot brother? Oh, why, in general, was the world so
+constituted that a man could not take his mother’s guineas comfortably?
+David became grimly speculative.
+
+Copious dinner at noon for Jacob; but little dinner, because little
+appetite, for David. Instead of eating, he plied Jacob with beer; for
+through this liberality he descried a hope. Jacob fell into a dead
+sleep, at last, without having his arms round David, who paid the
+reckoning, took his bundle, and walked off. In another half-hour he was
+on the coach on his way to Liverpool, smiling the smile of the
+triumphant wicked. He was rid of Jacob—he was bound for the Indies,
+where a gullible princess awaited him. He would never steal any more,
+but there would be no need; he would show himself so deserving, that
+people would make him presents freely. He must give up the notion of
+his father’s legacy; but it was not likely he would ever want that
+trifle; and even if he did—why, it was a compensation to think that in
+being for ever divided from his family he was divided from Jacob, more
+terrible than Gorgon or Demogorgon to David’s timid green eyes. Thank
+heaven, he should never see Jacob any more!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was nearly six years after the departure of Mr. David Faux for the
+West Indies, that the vacant shop in the market-place at Grimworth was
+understood to have been let to the stranger with a sallow complexion
+and a buff cravat, whose first appearance had caused some excitement in
+the bar of the Woolpack, where he had called to wait for the coach.
+
+Grimworth, to a discerning eye, was a good place to set up shopkeeping
+in. There was no competition in it at present; the Church-people had
+their own grocer and draper; the Dissenters had theirs; and the two or
+three butchers found a ready market for their joints without strict
+reference to religious persuasion—except that the rector’s wife had
+given a general order for the veal sweet-breads and the mutton kidneys,
+while Mr. Rodd, the Baptist minister, had requested that, so far as was
+compatible with the fair accommodation of other customers, the sheep’s
+trotters might be reserved for him. And it was likely to be a growing
+place, for the trustees of Mr. Zephaniah Crypt’s Charity, under the
+stimulus of a late visitation by commissioners, were beginning to apply
+long-accumulating funds to the rebuilding of the Yellow Coat School,
+which was henceforth to be carried forward on a greatly-extended scale,
+the testator having left no restrictions concerning the curriculum, but
+only concerning the coat.
+
+The shopkeepers at Grimworth were by no means unanimous as to the
+advantages promised by this prospect of increased population and
+trading, being substantial men, who liked doing a quiet business in
+which they were sure of their customers, and could calculate their
+returns to a nicety. Hitherto, it had been held a point of honour by
+the families in Grimworth parish, to buy their sugar and their flannel
+at the shop where their fathers and mothers had bought before them;
+but, if newcomers were to bring in the system of neck-and-neck trading,
+and solicit feminine eyes by gown-pieces laid in fan-like folds, and
+surmounted by artificial flowers, giving them a factitious charm (for
+on what human figure would a gown sit like a fan, or what female head
+was like a bunch of China-asters?), or, if new grocers were to fill
+their windows with mountains of currants and sugar, made seductive by
+contrast and tickets,—what security was there for Grimworth, that a
+vagrant spirit in shopping, once introduced, would not in the end carry
+the most important families to the larger market town of Cattleton,
+where, business being done on a system of small profits and quick
+returns, the fashions were of the freshest, and goods of all kinds
+might be bought at an advantage?
+
+With this view of the times predominant among the tradespeople at
+Grimworth, their uncertainty concerning the nature of the business
+which the sallow-complexioned stranger was about to set up in the
+vacant shop, naturally gave some additional strength to the fears of
+the less sanguine. If he was going to sell drapery, it was probable
+that a pale-faced fellow like that would deal in showy and inferior
+articles—printed cottons and muslins which would leave their dye in the
+wash-tub, jobbed linen full of knots, and flannel that would soon look
+like gauze. If grocery, then it was to be hoped that no mother of a
+family would trust the teas of an untried grocer. Such things had been
+known in some parishes as tradesmen going about canvassing for custom
+with cards in their pockets: when people came from nobody knew where,
+there was no knowing what they might do. It was a thousand pities that
+Mr. Moffat, the auctioneer and broker, had died without leaving anybody
+to follow him in the business, and Mrs. Cleve’s trustee ought to have
+known better than to let a shop to a stranger. Even the discovery that
+ovens were being put up on the premises, and that the shop was, in
+fact, being fitted up for a confectioner and pastry-cook’s business,
+hitherto unknown in Grimworth, did not quite suffice to turn the scale
+in the newcomer’s favour, though the landlady at the Woolpack defended
+him warmly, said he seemed to be a very clever young man, and from what
+she could make out, came of a very good family; indeed, was most likely
+a good many people’s betters.
+
+It certainly made a blaze of light and colour, almost as if a rainbow
+had suddenly descended into the market-place, when, one fine morning,
+the shutters were taken down from the new shop, and the two windows
+displayed their decorations. On one side, there were the variegated
+tints of collared and marbled meats, set off by bright green leaves,
+the pale brown of glazed pies, the rich tones of sauces and bottled
+fruits enclosed in their veil of glass—altogether a sight to bring
+tears into the eyes of a Dutch painter; and on the other, there was a
+predominance of the more delicate hues of pink, and white, and yellow,
+and buff, in the abundant lozenges, candies, sweet biscuits and icings,
+which to the eyes of a bilious person might easily have been blended
+into a faëry landscape in Turner’s latest style. What a sight to dawn
+upon the eyes of Grimworth children! They almost forgot to go to their
+dinner that day, their appetites being preoccupied with imaginary
+sugar-plums; and I think even Punch, setting up his tabernacle in the
+market-place, would not have succeeded in drawing them away from those
+shop-windows, where they stood according to gradations of size and
+strength, the biggest and strongest being nearest the window, and the
+little ones in the outermost rows lifting wide-open eyes and mouths
+towards the upper tier of jars, like small birds at meal-time.
+
+The elder inhabitants pished and pshawed a little at the folly of the
+new shopkeeper in venturing on such an outlay in goods that would not
+keep; to be sure, Christmas was coming, but what housewife in Grimworth
+would not think shame to furnish forth her table with articles that
+were not home-cooked? No, no. Mr. Edward Freely, as he called himself,
+was deceived, if he thought Grimworth money was to flow into his
+pockets on such terms.
+
+Edward Freely was the name that shone in gilt letters on a mazarine
+ground over the doorplace of the new shop—a generous-sounding name,
+that might have belonged to the open-hearted, improvident hero of an
+old comedy, who would have delighted in raining sugared almonds, like a
+new manna-gift, among that small generation outside the windows. But
+Mr. Edward Freely was a man whose impulses were kept in due
+subordination: he held that the desire for sweets and pastry must only
+be satisfied in a direct ratio with the power of paying for them. If
+the smallest child in Grimworth would go to him with a halfpenny in its
+tiny fist, he would, after ringing the halfpenny, deliver a just
+equivalent in “rock.” He was not a man to cheat even the smallest
+child—he often said so, observing at the same time that he loved
+honesty, and also that he was very tender-hearted, though he didn’t
+show his feelings as some people did.
+
+Either in reward of such virtue, or according to some more hidden law
+of sequence, Mr. Freely’s business, in spite of prejudice, started
+under favourable auspices. For Mrs. Chaloner, the rector’s wife, was
+among the earliest customers at the shop, thinking it only right to
+encourage a new parishioner who had made a decorous appearance at
+church; and she found Mr. Freely a most civil, obliging young man, and
+intelligent to a surprising degree for a confectioner; well-principled,
+too, for in giving her useful hints about choosing sugars he had thrown
+much light on the dishonesty of other tradesmen. Moreover, he had been
+in the West Indies, and had seen the very estate which had been her
+poor grandfather’s property; and he said the missionaries were the only
+cause of the negro’s discontent—an observing young man, evidently. Mrs.
+Chaloner ordered wine-biscuits and olives, and gave Mr. Freely to
+understand that she should find his shop a great convenience. So did
+the doctor’s wife, and so did Mrs. Gate, at the large carding-mill,
+who, having high connexions frequently visiting her, might be expected
+to have a large consumption of ratafias and macaroons.
+
+The less aristocratic matrons of Grimworth seemed likely at first to
+justify their husbands’ confidence that they would never pay a
+percentage of profits on drop-cakes, instead of making their own, or
+get up a hollow show of liberal housekeeping by purchasing slices of
+collared meat when a neighbour came in for supper. But it is my task to
+narrate the gradual corruption of Grimworth manners from their
+primitive simplicity—a melancholy task, if it were not cheered by the
+prospect of the fine peripateia or downfall by which the progress of
+the corruption was ultimately checked.
+
+It was young Mrs. Steene, the veterinary surgeons wife, who first gave
+way to temptation. I fear she had been rather over-educated for her
+station in life, for she knew by heart many passages in _Lalla Rookh_,
+the _Corsair_, and the _Siege of Corinth_, which had given her a
+distaste for domestic occupations, and caused her a withering
+disappointment at the discovery that Mr. Steene, since his marriage,
+had lost all interest in the “bulbul,” openly preferred discussing the
+nature of spavin with a coarse neighbour, and was angry if the pudding
+turned out watery—indeed, was simply a top-booted “vet.”, who came in
+hungry at dinner-time; and not in the least like a nobleman turned
+Corsair out of pure scorn for his race, or like a renegade with a
+turban and crescent, unless it were in the irritability of his temper.
+And scorn is such a very different thing in top-boots!
+
+This brutal man had invited a supper-party for Christmas eve, when he
+would expect to see mince-pies on the table. Mrs. Steene had prepared
+her mince-meat, and had devoted much butter, fine flour, and labour, to
+the making of a batch of pies in the morning; but they proved to be so
+very heavy when they came out of the oven, that she could only think
+with trembling of the moment when her husband should catch sight of
+them on the supper-table. He would storm at her, she was certain; and
+before all the company; and then she should never help crying: it was
+so dreadful to think she had come to that, after the bulbul and
+everything! Suddenly the thought darted through her mind that _this
+once_ she might send for a dish of mince-pies from Freely’s: she knew
+he had some. But what was to become of the eighteen heavy mince-pies?
+Oh, it was of no use thinking about that; it was very expensive—indeed,
+making mince-pies at all was a great expense, when they were not sure
+to turn out well: it would be much better to buy them ready-made. You
+paid a little more for them, but there was no risk of waste.
+
+Such was the sophistry with which this misguided young woman—enough.
+Mrs. Steene sent for the mince-pies, and, I am grieved to add, garbled
+her household accounts in order to conceal the fact from her husband.
+This was the second step in a downward course, all owing to a young
+woman’s being out of harmony with her circumstances, yearning after
+renegades and bulbuls, and being subject to claims from a veterinary
+surgeon fond of mince-pies. The third step was to harden herself by
+telling the fact of the bought mince-pies to her intimate friend Mrs.
+Mole, who had already guessed it, and who subsequently encouraged
+herself in buying a mould of jelly, instead of exerting her own skill,
+by the reflection that “other people” did the same sort of thing. The
+infection spread; soon there was a party or clique in Grimworth on the
+side of “buying at Freely’s”; and many husbands, kept for some time in
+the dark on this point, innocently swallowed at two mouthfuls a tart on
+which they were paying a profit of a hundred per cent., and as
+innocently encouraged a fatal disingenuousness in the partners of their
+bosoms by praising the pastry. Others, more keen-sighted, winked at the
+too frequent presentation on washing-days, and at impromptu suppers, of
+superior spiced-beef, which flattered their palates more than the cold
+remnants they had formerly been contented with. Every housewife who had
+once “bought at Freely’s” felt a secret joy when she detected a similar
+perversion in her neighbour’s practice, and soon only two or three
+old-fashioned mistresses of families held out in the protest against
+the growing demoralization, saying to their neighbours who came to sup
+with them, “I can’t offer you Freely’s beef, or Freely’s cheesecakes;
+everything in our house is home-made; I’m afraid you’ll hardly have any
+appetite for our plain pastry.” The doctor, whose cook was not
+satisfactory, the curate, who kept no cook, and the mining agent, who
+was a great _bon vivant_, even began to rely on Freely for the greater
+part of their dinner, when they wished to give an entertainment of some
+brilliancy. In short, the business of manufacturing the more fanciful
+viands was fast passing out of the hinds of maids and matrons in
+private families, and was becoming the work of a special commercial
+organ.
+
+I am not ignorant that this sort of thing is called the inevitable
+course of civilization, division of labour, and so forth, and that the
+maids and matrons may be said to have had their hands set free from
+cookery to add to the wealth of society in some other way. Only it
+happened at Grimworth, which, to be sure, was a low place, that the
+maids and matrons could do nothing with their hands at all better than
+cooking: not even those who had always made heavy cakes and leathery
+pastry. And so it came to pass, that the progress of civilization at
+Grimworth was not otherwise apparent than in the impoverishment of men,
+the gossiping idleness of women, and the heightening prosperity of Mr.
+Edward Freely.
+
+The Yellow Coat School was a double source of profit to the calculating
+confectioner; for he opened an eating-room for the superior workmen
+employed on the new school, and he accommodated the pupils at the old
+school by giving great attention to the fancy-sugar department. When I
+think of the sweet-tasted swans and other ingenious white shapes
+crunched by the small teeth of that rising generation, I am glad to
+remember that a certain amount of calcareous food has been held good
+for young creatures whose bones are not quite formed; for I have
+observed these delicacies to have an inorganic flavour which would have
+recommended them greatly to that young lady of the _Spectator’s_
+acquaintance who habitually made her dessert on the stems of
+tobacco-pipes.
+
+As for the confectioner himself, he made his way gradually into
+Grimworth homes, as his commodities did, in spite of some initial
+repugnance. Somehow or other, his reception as a guest seemed a thing
+that required justifying, like the purchasing of his pastry. In the
+first place, he was a stranger, and therefore open to suspicion;
+secondly, the confectionery business was so entirely new at Grimworth,
+that its place in the scale of rank had not been distinctly
+ascertained. There was no doubt about drapers and grocers, when they
+came of good old Grimworth families, like Mr. Luff and Mr. Prettyman:
+they visited with the Palfreys, who farmed their own land, played many
+a game at whist with the doctor, and condescended a little towards the
+timber-merchant, who had lately taken to the coal-trade also, and had
+got new furniture; but whether a confectioner should be admitted to
+this higher level of respectability, or should be understood to find
+his associates among butchers and bakers, was a new question on which
+tradition threw no light. His being a bachelor was in his favour, and
+would perhaps have been enough to turn the scale, even if Mr. Edward
+Freely’s other personal pretensions had been of an entirely
+insignificant cast. But so far from this, it very soon appeared that he
+was a remarkable young man, who had been in the West Indies, and had
+seen many wonders by sea and land, so that he could charm the ears of
+Grimworth Desdemonas with stories of strange fishes, especially sharks,
+which he had stabbed in the nick of time by bravely plunging overboard
+just as the monster was turning on his side to devour the cook’s mate;
+of terrible fevers which he had undergone in a land where the wind
+blows from all quarters at once; of rounds of toast cut straight from
+the breadfruit trees; of toes bitten off by land-crabs; of large
+honours that had been offered to him as a man who knew what was what,
+and was therefore particularly needed in a tropical climate; and of a
+Creole heiress who had wept bitterly at his departure. Such
+conversational talents as these, we know, will overcome disadvantages
+of complexion; and young Towers, whose cheeks were of the finest pink,
+set off by a fringe of dark whisker, was quite eclipsed by the presence
+of the sallow Mr. Freely. So exceptional a confectioner elevated the
+business, and might well begin to make disengaged hearts flutter a
+little.
+
+Fathers and mothers were naturally more slow and cautious in their
+recognition of the newcomer’s merits.
+
+“He’s an amusing fellow,” said Mr. Prettyman, the highly respectable
+grocer. (Mrs. Prettyman was a Miss Fothergill, and her sister had
+married a London mercer.) “He’s an amusing fellow; and I’ve no
+objection to his making one at the Oyster Club; but he’s a bit too fond
+of riding the high horse. He’s uncommonly knowing, I’ll allow; but how
+came he to go to the Indies? I should like that answered. It’s
+unnatural in a confectioner. I’m not fond of people that have been
+beyond seas, if they can’t give a good account how they happened to go.
+When folks go so far off, it’s because they’ve got little credit nearer
+home—that’s my opinion. However, he’s got some good rum; but I don’t
+want to be hand and glove with him, for all that.”
+
+It was this kind of dim suspicion which beclouded the view of Mr.
+Freely’s qualities in the maturer minds of Grimworth through the early
+months of his residence there. But when the confectioner ceased to be a
+novelty, the suspicions also ceased to be novel, and people got tired
+of hinting at them, especially as they seemed to be refuted by his
+advancing prosperity and importance. Mr. Freely was becoming a person
+of influence in the parish; he was found useful as an overseer of the
+poor, having great firmness in enduring other people’s pain, which
+firmness, he said, was due to his great benevolence; he always did what
+was good for people in the end. Mr. Chaloner had even selected him as
+clergyman’s churchwarden, for he was a very handy man, and much more of
+Mr. Chaloner’s opinion in everything about church business than the
+older parishioners. Mr. Freely was a very regular churchman, but at the
+Oyster Club he was sometimes a little free in his conversation, more
+than hinting at a life of Sultanic self-indulgence which he had passed
+in the West Indies, shaking his head now and then and smiling rather
+bitterly, as men are wont to do when they intimate that they have
+become a little too wise to be instructed about a world which has long
+been flat and stale to them.
+
+For some time he was quite general in his attentions to the fair sex,
+combining the gallantries of a lady’s man with a severity of criticism
+on the person and manners of absent belles, which tended rather to
+stimulate in the feminine breast the desire to conquer the approval of
+so fastidious a judge. Nothing short of the very best in the department
+of female charms and virtues could suffice to kindle the ardour of Mr.
+Edward Freely, who had become familiar with the most luxuriant and
+dazzling beauty in the West Indies. It may seem incredible that a
+confectioner should have ideas and conversation so much resembling
+those to be met with in a higher walk of life, but it must be
+remembered that he had not merely travelled, he had also bow-legs and a
+sallow, small-featured visage, so that nature herself had stamped him
+for a fastidious connoisseur of the fair sex.
+
+At last, however, it seemed clear that Cupid had found a sharper arrow
+than usual, and that Mr. Freely’s heart was pierced. It was the general
+talk among the young people at Grimworth. But was it really love, and
+not rather ambition? Miss Fullilove, the timber-merchant’s daughter,
+was quite sure that if _she_ were Miss Penny Palfrey, she would be
+cautious; it was not a good sign when men looked so much above
+themselves for a wife. For it was no less a person than Miss Penelope
+Palfrey, second daughter of the Mr. Palfrey who farmed his own land,
+that had attracted Mr. Freely’s peculiar regard, and conquered his
+fastidiousness; and no wonder, for the Ideal, as exhibited in the
+finest waxwork, was perhaps never so closely approached by the Real as
+in the person of the pretty Penelope. Her yellowish flaxen hair did not
+curl naturally, I admit, but its bright crisp ringlets were such
+smooth, perfect miniature tubes, that you would have longed to pass
+your little finger through them, and feel their soft elasticity. She
+wore them in a crop, for in those days, when society was in a healthier
+state, young ladies wore crops long after they were twenty, and
+Penelope was not yet nineteen. Like the waxen ideal, she had round blue
+eyes, and round nostrils in her little nose, and teeth such as the
+ideal would be seen to have, if it ever showed them. Altogether, she
+was a small, round thing, as neat as a pink and white double daisy, and
+as guileless; for I hope it does not argue guile in a pretty damsel of
+nineteen, to think that she should like to have a beau and be
+“engaged,” when her elder sister had already been in that position a
+year and a half. To be sure, there was young Towers always coming to
+the house; but Penny felt convinced he only came to see her brother,
+for he never had anything to say to her, and never offered her his arm,
+and was as awkward and silent as possible.
+
+It is not unlikely that Mr. Freely had early been smitten by Penny’s
+charms, as brought under his observation at church, but he had to make
+his way in society a little before he could come into nearer contact
+with them; and even after he was well received in Grimworth families,
+it was a long while before he could converse with Penny otherwise than
+in an incidental meeting at Mr. Luff’s. It was not so easy to get
+invited to Long Meadows, the residence of the Palfreys; for though Mr.
+Palfrey had been losing money of late years, not being able quite to
+recover his feet after the terrible murrain which forced him to borrow,
+his family were far from considering themselves on the same level even
+as the old-established tradespeople with whom they visited. The
+greatest people, even kings and queens, must visit with somebody, and
+the equals of the great are scarce. They were especially scarce at
+Grimworth, which, as I have before observed, was a low parish,
+mentioned with the most scornful brevity in gazetteers. Even the great
+people there were far behind those of their own standing in other parts
+of this realm. Mr. Palfrey’s farmyard doors had the paint all worn off
+them, and the front garden walks had long been merged in a general
+weediness. Still, his father had been called Squire Palfrey, and had
+been respected by the last Grimworth generation as a man who could
+afford to drink too much in his own house.
+
+Pretty Penny was not blind to the fact that Mr. Freely admired her, and
+she felt sure that it was he who had sent her a beautiful valentine;
+but her sister seemed to think so lightly of him (all young ladies
+think lightly of the gentlemen to whom they are not engaged), that
+Penny never dared mention him, and trembled and blushed whenever they
+met him, thinking of the valentine, which was very strong in its
+expressions, and which she felt guilty of knowing by heart. A man who
+had been to the Indies, and knew the sea so well, seemed to her a sort
+of public character, almost like Robinson Crusoe or Captain Cook; and
+Penny had always wished her husband to be a remarkable personage,
+likely to be put in Mangnall’s Questions, with which register of the
+immortals she had become acquainted during her one year at a
+boarding-school. Only it seemed strange that a remarkable man should be
+a confectioner and pastry-cook, and this anomaly quite disturbed
+Penny’s dreams. Her brothers, she knew, laughed at men who couldn’t sit
+on horseback well, and called them tailors; but her brothers were very
+rough, and were quite without that power of anecdote which made Mr.
+Freely such a delightful companion. He was a very good man, she
+thought, for she had heard him say at Mr. Luff’s, one day, that he
+always wished to do his duty in whatever state of life he might be
+placed; and he knew a great deal of poetry, for one day he had repeated
+a verse of a song. She wondered if he had made the words of the
+valentine!—it ended in this way:—
+
+“Without thee, it is pain to live,
+But with thee, it were sweet to die.”
+
+
+Poor Mr. Freely! her father would very likely object—she felt sure he
+would, for he always called Mr. Freely “that sugar-plum fellow.” Oh, it
+was very cruel, when true love was crossed in that way, and all because
+Mr. Freely was a confectioner: well, Penny would be true to him, for
+all that, and since his being a confectioner gave her an opportunity of
+showing her faithfulness, she was glad of it. Edward Freely was a
+pretty name, much better than John Towers. Young Towers had offered her
+a rose out of his button-hole the other day, blushing very much; but
+she refused it, and thought with delight how much Mr. Freely would be
+comforted if he knew her firmness of mind.
+
+Poor little Penny! the days were so very long among the daisies on a
+grazing farm, and thought is so active—how was it possible that the
+inward drama should not get the start of the outward? I have known
+young ladies, much better educated, and with an outward world
+diversified by instructive lectures, to say nothing of literature and
+highly-developed fancy-work, who have spun a cocoon of visionary joys
+and sorrows for themselves, just as Penny did. Her elder sister
+Letitia, who had a prouder style of beauty, and a more worldly
+ambition, was engaged to a wool-factor, who came all the way from
+Cattelton to see her; and everybody knows that a wool-factor takes a
+very high rank, sometimes driving a double-bodied gig. Letty’s notions
+got higher every day, and Penny never dared to speak of her cherished
+griefs to her lofty sister—never dared to propose that they should call
+at Mr. Freely’s to buy liquorice, though she had prepared for such an
+incident by mentioning a slight sore throat. So she had to pass the
+shop on the other side of the market-place, and reflect, with a
+suppressed sigh, that behind those pink and white jars somebody was
+thinking of her tenderly, unconscious of the small space that divided
+her from him.
+
+And it was quite true that, when business permitted, Mr. Freely thought
+a great deal of Penny. He thought her prettiness comparable to the
+loveliest things in confectionery; he judged her to be of submissive
+temper—likely to wait upon him as well as if she had been a negress,
+and to be silently terrified when his liver made him irritable; and he
+considered the Palfrey family quite the best in the parish, possessing
+marriageable daughters. On the whole, he thought her worthy to become
+Mrs. Edward Freely, and all the more so, because it would probably
+require some ingenuity to win her. Mr. Palfrey was capable of
+horse-whipping a too rash pretender to his daughter’s hand; and,
+moreover, he had three tall sons: it was clear that a suitor would be
+at a disadvantage with such a family, unless travel and natural acumen
+had given him a countervailing power of contrivance. And the first idea
+that occurred to him in the matter was, that Mr. Palfrey would object
+less if he knew that the Freelys were a much higher family than his
+own. It had been foolish modesty in him hitherto to conceal the fact
+that a branch of the Freelys held a manor in Yorkshire, and to shut up
+the portrait of his great uncle the admiral, instead of hanging it up
+where a family portrait should be hung—over the mantelpiece in the
+parlour. Admiral Freely, K.C.B., once placed in this conspicuous
+position, was seen to have had one arm only, and one eye—in these
+points resembling the heroic Nelson—while a certain pallid
+insignificance of feature confirmed the relationship between himself
+and his grand-nephew.
+
+Next, Mr. Freely was seized with an irrepressible ambition to posses
+Mrs. Palfrey’s receipt for brawn, hers being pronounced on all hands to
+be superior to his own—as he informed her in a very flattering letter
+carried by his errand-boy. Now Mrs. Palfrey, like other geniuses,
+wrought by instinct rather than by rule, and possessed no
+receipts—indeed, despised all people who used them, observing that
+people who pickled by book, must pickle by weights and measures, and
+such nonsense; as for herself, her weights and measures were the tip of
+her finger and the tip of her tongue, and if you went nearer, why, of
+course, for dry goods like flour and spice, you went by handfuls and
+pinches, and for wet, there was a middle-sized jug—quite the best thing
+whether for much or little, because you might know how much a teacupful
+was if you’d got any use of your senses, and you might be sure it would
+take five middle-sized jugs to make a gallon. Knowledge of this kind is
+like Titian’s colouring, difficult to communicate; and as Mrs. Palfrey,
+once remarkably handsome, had now become rather stout and asthmatical,
+and scarcely ever left home, her oral teaching could hardly be given
+anywhere except at Long Meadows. Even a matron is not insusceptible to
+flattery, and the prospect of a visitor whose great object would be to
+listen to her conversation, was not without its charms to Mrs. Palfrey.
+Since there was no receipt to be sent in reply to Mr. Freely’s humble
+request, she called on her more docile daughter, Penny, to write a
+note, telling him that her mother would be glad to see him and talk
+with him on brawn, any day that he could call at Long Meadows. Penny
+obeyed with a trembling hand, thinking how wonderfully things came
+about in this world.
+
+In this way, Mr. Freely got himself introduced into the home of the
+Palfreys, and notwithstanding a tendency in the male part of the family
+to jeer at him a little as “peaky” and bow-legged, he presently
+established his position as an accepted and frequent guest. Young
+Towers looked at him with increasing disgust when they met at the house
+on a Sunday, and secretly longed to try his ferret upon him, as a piece
+of vermin which that valuable animal would be likely to tackle with
+unhesitating vigour. But—so blind sometimes are parents—neither Mr. nor
+Mrs. Palfrey suspected that Penny would have anything to say to a
+tradesman of questionable rank whose youthful bloom was much withered.
+Young Towers, they thought, had an eye to her, and _that_ was likely
+enough to be a match some day; but Penny was a child at present. And
+all the while Penny was imagining the circumstances under which Mr.
+Freely would make her an offer: perhaps down by the row of
+damson-trees, when they were in the garden before tea; perhaps by
+letter—in which case, how would the letter begin? “Dearest Penelope?”
+or “My dear Miss Penelope?” or straight off, without dear anything, as
+seemed the most natural when people were embarrassed? But, however he
+might make the offer, she would not accept it without her father’s
+consent: she would always be true to Mr. Freely, but she would not
+disobey her father. For Penny was a good girl, though some of her
+female friends were afterwards of opinion that it spoke ill for her not
+to have felt an instinctive repugnance to Mr. Freely.
+
+But he was cautious, and wished to be quite sure of the ground he trod
+on. His views on marriage were not entirely sentimental, but were as
+duly mingled with considerations of what would be advantageous to a man
+in his position, as if he had had a very large amount of money spent on
+his education. He was not a man to fall in love in the wrong place; and
+so, he applied himself quite as much to conciliate the favour of the
+parents, as to secure the attachment of Penny. Mrs. Palfrey had not
+been inaccessible to flattery, and her husband, being also of mortal
+mould, would not, it might be hoped, be proof against rum—that very
+fine Jamaica rum—of which Mr. Freely expected always to have a supply
+sent him from Jamaica. It was not easy to get Mr. Palfrey into the
+parlour behind the shop, where a mild back-street light fell on the
+features of the heroic admiral; but by getting hold of him rather late
+one evening as he was about to return home from Grimworth, the aspiring
+lover succeeded in persuading him to sup on some collared beef which,
+after Mrs. Palfrey’s brawn, he would find the very best of cold eating.
+
+From that hour Mr. Freely felt sure of success: being in privacy with
+an estimable man old enough to be his father, and being rather lonely
+in the world, it was natural he should unbosom himself a little on
+subjects which he could not speak of in a mixed circle—especially
+concerning his expectations from his uncle in Jamaica, who had no
+children, and loved his nephew Edward better than any one else in the
+world, though he had been so hurt at his leaving Jamaica, that he had
+threatened to cut him off with a shilling. However, he had since
+written to state his full forgiveness, and though he was an eccentric
+old gentleman and could not bear to give away money during his life,
+Mr. Edward Freely could show Mr. Palfrey the letter which declared,
+plainly enough, who would be the affectionate uncle’s heir. Mr. Palfrey
+actually saw the letter, and could not help admiring the spirit of the
+nephew who declared that such brilliant hopes as these made no
+difference to his conduct; he should work at his humble business and
+make his modest fortune at it all the same. If the Jamaica estate was
+to come to him—well and good. It was nothing very surprising for one of
+the Freely family to have an estate left him, considering the lands
+that family had possessed in time gone by—nay, still possessed in the
+Northumberland branch. Would not Mr. Palfrey take another glass of rum?
+and also look at the last year’s balance of the accounts? Mr. Freely
+was a man who cared to possess personal virtues, and did not pique
+himself on his family, though some men would.
+
+We know how easily the great Leviathan may be led, when once there is a
+hook in his nose or a bridle in his jaws. Mr. Palfrey was a large man,
+but, like Leviathan’s, his bulk went against him when once he had taken
+a turning. He was not a mercurial man, who easily changed his point of
+view. Enough. Before two months were over, he had given his consent to
+Mr. Freely’s marriage with his daughter Penny, and having hit on a
+formula by which he could justify it, fenced off all doubts and
+objections, his own included. The formula was this: “I’m not a man to
+put my head up an entry before I know where it leads.”
+
+Little Penny was very proud and fluttering, but hardly so happy as she
+expected to be in an engagement. She wondered if young Towers cared
+much about it, for he had not been to the house lately, and her sister
+and brothers were rather inclined to sneer than to sympathize.
+Grimworth rang with the news. All men extolled Mr. Freely’s good
+fortune; while the women, with the tender solicitude characteristic of
+the sex, wished the marriage might turn out well.
+
+While affairs were at this triumphant juncture, Mr. Freely one morning
+observed that a stone-carver who had been breakfasting in the
+eating-room had left a newspaper behind. It was the _X-shire Gazette_,
+and X-shire being a county not unknown to Mr. Freely, he felt some
+curiosity to glance over it, and especially over the advertisements. A
+slight flush came over his face as he read. It was produced by the
+following announcement:—“If David Faux, son of Jonathan Faux, late of
+Gilsbrook, will apply at the office of Mr. Strutt, attorney, of Rodham,
+he will hear of something to his advantage.”
+
+“Father’s dead!” exclaimed Mr. Freely, involuntarily. “Can he have left
+me a legacy?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Perhaps it was a result quite different from your expectations, that
+Mr. David Faux should have returned from the West Indies only a few
+years after his arrival there, and have set up in his old business,
+like any plain man who has never travelled. But these cases do occur in
+life. Since, as we know, men change their skies and see new
+constellations without changing their souls, it will follow sometimes
+that they don’t change their business under those novel circumstances.
+
+Certainly, this result was contrary to David’s own expectations. He had
+looked forward, you are aware, to a brilliant career among “the
+blacks”; but, either because they had already seen too many white men,
+or for some other reason, they did not at once recognize him as a
+superior order of human being; besides, there were no princesses among
+them. Nobody in Jamaica was anxious to maintain David for the mere
+pleasure of his society; and those hidden merits of a man which are so
+well known to himself were as little recognized there as they
+notoriously are in the effete society of the Old World. So that in the
+dark hints that David threw out at the Oyster Club about that life of
+Sultanic self-indulgence spent by him in the luxurious Indies, I really
+think he was doing himself a wrong; I believe he worked for his bread,
+and, in fact, took to cooking as, after all, the only department in
+which he could offer skilled labour. He had formed several ingenious
+plans by which he meant to circumvent people of large fortune and small
+faculty; but then he never met with exactly the right circumstances.
+David’s devices for getting rich without work had apparently no direct
+relation with the world outside him, as his confectionery receipts had.
+It is possible to pass a great many bad half pennies and bad
+half-crowns, but I believe there has no instance been known of passing
+a halfpenny or a half-crown as a sovereign. A sharper can drive a brisk
+trade in this world: it is undeniable that there may be a fine career
+for him, if he will dare consequences; but David was too timid to be a
+sharper, or venture in any way among the mantraps of the law. He dared
+rob nobody but his mother. And so he had to fall back on the genuine
+value there was in him—to be content to pass as a good halfpenny, or,
+to speak more accurately, as a good confectioner. For in spite of some
+additional reading and observation, there was nothing else he could
+make so much money by; nay, he found in himself even a capability of
+extending his skill in this direction, and embracing all forms of
+cookery; while, in other branches of human labour, he began to see that
+it was not possible for him to shine. Fate was too strong for him; he
+had thought to master her inclination and had fled over the seas to
+that end; but she caught him, tied an apron round him, and snatching
+him from all other devices, made him devise cakes and patties in a
+kitchen at Kingstown. He was getting submissive to her, since she paid
+him with tolerable gains; but fevers and prickly heat, and other evils
+incidental to cooks in ardent climates, made him long for his native
+land; so he took ship once more, carrying his six years’ savings, and
+seeing distinctly, this time, what were Fate’s intentions as to his
+career. If you question me closely as to whether all the money with
+which he set up at Grimworth consisted of pure and simple earnings, I
+am obliged to confess that he got a sum or two for charitably
+abstaining from mentioning some other people’s misdemeanours.
+Altogether, since no prospects were attached to his family name, and
+since a new christening seemed a suitable commencement of a new life,
+Mr. David Faux thought it as well to call himself Mr. Edward Freely.
+
+But lo! now, in opposition to all calculable probability, some benefit
+appeared to be attached to the name of David Faux. Should he neglect
+it, as beneath the attention of a prosperous tradesman? It might bring
+him into contact with his family again, and he felt no yearnings in
+that direction: moreover, he had small belief that the “something to
+his advantage” could be anything considerable. On the other hand, even
+a small gain is pleasant, and the promise of it in this instance was so
+surprising, that David felt his curiosity awakened. The scale dipped at
+last on the side of writing to the lawyer, and, to be brief, the
+correspondence ended in an appointment for a meeting between David and
+his eldest brother at Mr. Strutt’s, the vague “something” having been
+defined as a legacy from his father of eighty-two pounds, three
+shillings.
+
+David, you know, had expected to be disinherited; and so he would have
+been, if he had not, like some other indifferent sons, come of
+excellent parents, whose conscience made them scrupulous where much
+more highly-instructed people often feel themselves warranted in
+following the bent of their indignation. Good Mrs. Faux could never
+forget that she had brought this ill-conditioned son into the world
+when he was in that entirely helpless state which excluded the smallest
+choice on his part; and, somehow or other, she felt that his going
+wrong would be his father’s and mother’s fault, if they failed in one
+tittle of their parental duty. Her notion of parental duty was not of a
+high and subtle kind, but it included giving him his due share of the
+family property; for when a man had got a little honest money of his
+own, was he so likely to steal? To cut the delinquent son off with a
+shilling, was like delivering him over to his evil propensities. No;
+let the sum of twenty guineas which he had stolen be deducted from his
+share, and then let the sum of three guineas be put back from it,
+seeing that his mother had always considered three of the twenty
+guineas as his; and, though he had run away, and was, perhaps, gone
+across the sea, let the money be left to him all the same, and be kept
+in reserve for his possible return. Mr. Faux agreed to his wife’s
+views, and made a codicil to his will accordingly, in time to die with
+a clear conscience. But for some time his family thought it likely that
+David would never reappear; and the eldest son, who had the charge of
+Jacob on his hands, often thought it a little hard that David might
+perhaps be dead, and yet, for want of certitude on that point, his
+legacy could not fall to his legal heir. But in this state of things
+the opposite certitude—namely, that David was still alive and in
+England—seemed to be brought by the testimony of a neighbour, who,
+having been on a journey to Cattelton, was pretty sure he had seen
+David in a gig, with a stout man driving by his side. He could “swear
+it was David,” though he could “give no account why, for he had no
+marks on him; but no more had a white dog, and that didn’t hinder folks
+from knowing a white dog.” It was this incident which had led to the
+advertisement.
+
+The legacy was paid, of course, after a few preliminary disclosures as
+to Mr. David’s actual position. He begged to send his love to his
+mother, and to say that he hoped to pay her a dutiful visit by and by;
+but, at present, his business and near prospect of marriage made it
+difficult for him to leave home. His brother replied with much
+frankness.
+
+“My mother may do as she likes about having you to see her, but, for my
+part, I don’t want to catch sight of you on the premises again. When
+folks have taken a new name, they’d better keep to their new
+’quinetance.”
+
+David pocketed the insult along with the eighty-two pounds three, and
+travelled home again in some triumph at the ease of a transaction which
+had enriched him to this extent. He had no intention of offending his
+brother by further claims on his fraternal recognition, and relapsed
+with full contentment into the character of Mr. Edward Freely, the
+orphan, scion of a great but reduced family, with an eccentric uncle in
+the West Indies. (I have already hinted that he had some acquaintance
+with imaginative literature; and being of a practical turn, he had, you
+perceive, applied even this form of knowledge to practical purposes.)
+
+It was little more than a week after the return from his fruitful
+journey, that the day of his marriage with Penny having been fixed, it
+was agreed that Mrs. Palfrey should overcome her reluctance to move
+from home, and that she and her husband should bring their two
+daughters to inspect little Penny’s future abode and decide on the new
+arrangements to be made for the reception of the bride. Mr. Freely
+meant her to have a house so pretty and comfortable that she need not
+envy even a wool-factor’s wife. Of course, the upper room over the shop
+was to be the best sitting-room; but also the parlour behind the shop
+was to be made a suitable bower for the lovely Penny, who would
+naturally wish to be near her husband, though Mr. Freely declared his
+resolution never to allow _his_ wife to wait in the shop. The decisions
+about the parlour furniture were left till last, because the party was
+to take tea there; and, about five o’clock, they were all seated there
+with the best muffins and buttered buns before them, little Penny
+blushing and smiling, with her “crop” in the best order, and a blue
+frock showing her little white shoulders, while her opinion was being
+always asked and never given. She secretly wished to have a particular
+sort of chimney ornaments, but she could not have brought herself to
+mention it. Seated by the side of her yellow and rather withered lover,
+who, though he had not reached his thirtieth year, had already
+crow’s-feet about his eyes, she was quite tremulous at the greatness of
+her lot in being married to a man who had travelled so much—and before
+her sister Letty! The handsome Letitia looked rather proud and
+contemptuous, thought her future brother-in-law an odious person, and
+was vexed with her father and mother for letting Penny marry him. Dear
+little Penny! She certainly did look like a fresh white-heart cherry
+going to be bitten off the stem by that lipless mouth. Would no
+deliverer come to make a slip between that cherry and that mouth
+without a lip?
+
+“Quite a family likeness between the admiral and you, Mr. Freely,”
+observed Mrs. Palfrey, who was looking at the family portrait for the
+first time. “It’s wonderful! and only a grand-uncle. Do you feature the
+rest of your family, as you know of?”
+
+“I can’t say,” said Mr. Freely, with a sigh. “My family have mostly
+thought themselves too high to take any notice of me.”
+
+At this moment an extraordinary disturbance was heard in the shop, as
+of a heavy animal stamping about and making angry noises, and then of a
+glass vessel falling in shivers, while the voice of the apprentice was
+heard calling “Master” in great alarm.
+
+Mr. Freely rose in anxious astonishment, and hastened into the shop,
+followed by the four Palfreys, who made a group at the parlour-door,
+transfixed with wonder at seeing a large man in a smock-frock, with a
+pitchfork in his hand, rush up to Mr. Freely and hug him, crying
+out,—“Zavy, Zavy, b’other Zavy!”
+
+It was Jacob, and for some moments David lost all presence of mind. He
+felt arrested for having stolen his mother’s guineas. He turned cold,
+and trembled in his brother’s grasp.
+
+“Why, how’s this?” said Mr. Palfrey, advancing from the door. “Who is
+he?”
+
+Jacob supplied the answer by saying over and over again—
+
+“I’se Zacob, b’other Zacob. Come ’o zee Zavy”—till hunger prompted him
+to relax his grasp, and to seize a large raised pie, which he lifted to
+his mouth.
+
+By this time David’s power of device had begun to return, but it was a
+very hard task for his prudence to master his rage and hatred towards
+poor Jacob.
+
+“I don’t know who he is; he must be drunk,” he said, in a low tone to
+Mr. Palfrey. “But he’s dangerous with that pitchfork. He’ll never let
+it go.” Then checking himself on the point of betraying too great an
+intimacy with Jacob’s habits, he added “You watch him, while I run for
+the constable.” And he hurried out of the shop.
+
+“Why, where do you come from, my man?” said Mr. Palfrey, speaking to
+Jacob in a conciliatory tone. Jacob was eating his pie by large
+mouthfuls, and looking round at the other good things in the shop,
+while he embraced his pitchfork with his left arm, and laid his left
+hand on some Bath buns. He was in the rare position of a person who
+recovers a long absent friend and finds him richer than ever in the
+characteristics that won his heart.
+
+“I’s Zacob—b’other Zacob—’t home. I love Zavy—b’other Zavy,” he said,
+as soon as Mr. Palfrey had drawn his attention. “Zavy come back from z’
+Indies—got mother’s zinnies. Where’s Zavy?” he added, looking round and
+then turning to the others with a questioning air, puzzled by David’s
+disappearance.
+
+“It’s very odd,” observed Mr. Palfrey to his wife and daughters. “He
+seems to say Freely’s his brother come back from th’ Indies.”
+
+“What a pleasant relation for us!” said Letitia, sarcastically. “I
+think he’s a good deal like Mr. Freely. He’s got just the same sort of
+nose, and his eyes are the same colour.”
+
+Poor Penny was ready to cry.
+
+But now Mr. Freely re-entered the shop without the constable. During
+his walk of a few yards he had had time and calmness enough to widen
+his view of consequences, and he saw that to get Jacob taken to the
+workhouse or to the lock-up house as an offensive stranger might have
+awkward effects if his family took the trouble of inquiring after him.
+He must resign himself to more patient measures.
+
+“On second thoughts,” he said, beckoning to Mr. Palfrey and whispering
+to him while Jacob’s back was turned, “he’s a poor half-witted fellow.
+Perhaps his friends will come after him. I don’t mind giving him
+something to eat, and letting him lie down for the night. He’s got it
+into his head that he knows me—they do get these fancies, idiots do.
+He’ll perhaps go away again in an hour or two, and make no more ado.
+I’m a kind-hearted man _myself_—I shouldn’t like to have the poor
+fellow ill-used.”
+
+“Why, he’ll eat a sovereign’s worth in no time,” said Mr. Palfrey,
+thinking Mr. Freely a little too magnificent in his generosity.
+
+“Eh, Zavy, come back?” exclaimed Jacob, giving his dear brother another
+hug, which crushed Mr. Freely’s features inconveniently against the
+handle of the pitchfork.
+
+“Aye, aye,” said Mr. Freely, smiling, with every capability of murder
+in his mind, except the courage to commit it. He wished the Bath buns
+might by chance have arsenic in them.
+
+“Mother’s zinnies?” said Jacob, pointing to a glass jar of yellow
+lozenges that stood in the window. “Zive ’em me.”
+
+David dared not do otherwise than reach down the glass jar and give
+Jacob a handful. He received them in his smock-frock, which he held out
+for more.
+
+“They’ll keep him quiet a bit, at any rate,” thought David, and emptied
+the jar. Jacob grinned and mowed with delight.
+
+“You’re very good to this stranger, Mr. Freely,” said Letitia; and then
+spitefully, as David joined the party at the parlour-door, “I think you
+could hardly treat him better, if he was really your brother.”
+
+“I’ve always thought it a duty to be good to idiots,” said Mr. Freely,
+striving after the most moral view of the subject. “We might have been
+idiots ourselves—everybody might have been born idiots, instead of
+having their right senses.”
+
+“I don’t know where there’d ha’ been victual for us all then,” observed
+Mrs. Palfrey, regarding the matter in a housewifely light.
+
+“But let us sit down again and finish our tea,” said Mr. Freely. “Let
+us leave the poor creature to himself.”
+
+They walked into the parlour again; but Jacob, not apparently
+appreciating the kindness of leaving him to himself, immediately
+followed his brother, and seated himself, pitchfork grounded, at the
+table.
+
+“Well,” said Miss Letitia, rising, “I don’t know whether _you_ mean to
+stay, mother; but I shall go home.”
+
+“Oh, me too,” said Penny, frightened to death at Jacob, who had begun
+to nod and grin at her.
+
+“Well, I think we _had_ better be going, Mr. Palfrey,” said the mother,
+rising more slowly.
+
+Mr. Freely, whose complexion had become decidedly yellower during the
+last half-hour, did not resist this proposition. He hoped they should
+meet again “under happier circumstances.”
+
+“It’s my belief the man is his brother,” said Letitia, when they were
+all on their way home.
+
+“Nonsense!” said Mr. Palfrey. “Freely’s got no brother—he’s said so
+many and many a time; he’s an orphan; he’s got nothing but
+uncles—leastwise, one. What’s it matter what an idiot says? What call
+had Freely to tell lies?”
+
+Letitia tossed her head and was silent.
+
+Mr. Freely, left alone with his affectionate brother Jacob, brooded
+over the possibility of luring him out of the town early the next
+morning, and getting him conveyed to Gilsbrook without further
+betrayals. But the thing was difficult. He saw clearly that if he took
+Jacob himself, his absence, conjoined with the disappearance of the
+stranger, would either cause the conviction that he was really a
+relative, or would oblige him to the dangerous course of inventing a
+story to account for his disappearance, and his own absence at the same
+time. David groaned. There come occasions when falsehood is felt to be
+inconvenient. It would, perhaps, have been a longer-headed device, if
+he had never told any of those clever fibs about his uncles, grand and
+otherwise; for the Palfreys were simple people, and shared the popular
+prejudice against lying. Even if he could get Jacob away this time,
+what security was there that he would not come again, having once found
+the way? O guineas! O lozenges! what enviable people those were who had
+never robbed their mothers, and had never told fibs! David spent a
+sleepless night, while Jacob was snoring close by. Was this the upshot
+of travelling to the Indies, and acquiring experience combined with
+anecdote?
+
+He rose at break of day, as he had once before done when he was in fear
+of Jacob, and took all gentle means to rouse this fatal brother from
+his deep sleep; he dared not be loud, because his apprentice was in the
+house, and would report everything. But Jacob was not to be roused. He
+fought out with his fist at the unknown cause of disturbance, turned
+over, and snored again. He must be left to wake as he would. David,
+with a cold perspiration on his brow, confessed to himself that Jacob
+could not be got away that day.
+
+Mr. Palfrey came over to Grimworth before noon, with a natural
+curiosity to see how his future son-in-law got on with the stranger to
+whom he was so benevolently inclined. He found a crowd round the shop.
+All Grimworth by this time had heard how Freely had been fastened on by
+an idiot, who called him “Brother Zavy”; and the younger population
+seemed to find the singular stranger an unwearying source of
+fascination, while the householders dropped in one by one to inquire
+into the incident.
+
+“Why don’t you send him to the workhouse?” said Mr. Prettyman. “You’ll
+have a row with him and the children presently, and he’ll eat you up.
+The workhouse is the proper place for him; let his kin claim him, if
+he’s got any.”
+
+“Those may be _your_ feelings, Mr. Prettyman,” said David, his mind
+quite enfeebled by the torture of his position.
+
+“What! _is_ he your brother, then?” said Mr. Prettyman, looking at his
+neighbour Freely rather sharply.
+
+“All men are our brothers, and idiots particular so,” said Mr. Freely,
+who, like many other travelled men, was not master of the English
+language.
+
+“Come, come, if he’s your brother, tell the truth, man,” said Mr.
+Prettyman, with growing suspicion. “Don’t be ashamed of your own flesh
+and blood.”
+
+Mr. Palfrey was present, and also had his eye on Freely. It is
+difficult for a man to believe in the advantage of a truth which will
+disclose him to have been a liar. In this critical moment, David shrank
+from this immediate disgrace in the eyes of his future father-in-law.
+
+“Mr. Prettyman,” he said, “I take your observations as an insult. I’ve
+no reason to be otherwise than proud of my own flesh and blood. If this
+poor man was my brother more than all men are, I should say so.”
+
+A tall figure darkened the door, and David, lifting his eyes in that
+direction, saw his eldest brother, Jonathan, on the door-sill.
+
+“I’ll stay wi’ Zavy,” shouted Jacob, as he, too, caught sight of his
+eldest brother; and, running behind the counter, he clutched David
+hard.
+
+“What, he _is_ here?” said Jonathan Faux, coming forward. “My mother
+would have no nay, as he’d been away so long, but I must see after him.
+And it struck me he was very like come after you, because we’d been
+talking of you o’ late, and where you lived.”
+
+David saw there was no escape; he smiled a ghastly smile.
+
+“What! is this a relation of yours, sir?” said Mr. Palfrey to Jonathan.
+
+“Aye, it’s my innicent of a brother, sure enough,” said honest
+Jonathan. “A fine trouble and cost he is to us, in th’ eating and other
+things, but we must bear what’s laid on us.”
+
+“And your name’s Freely, is it?” said Mr. Prettyman.
+
+“Nay, nay, my name’s Faux, I know nothing o’ Freelys,” said Jonathan,
+curtly. “Come,” he added, turning to David, “I must take some news to
+mother about Jacob. Shall I take him with me, or will you undertake to
+send him back?”
+
+“Take him, if you can make him loose his hold of me,” said David,
+feebly.
+
+“Is this gentleman here in the confectionery line your brother, then,
+sir?” said Mr. Prettyman, feeling that it was an occasion on which
+formal language must be used.
+
+“_I_ don’t want to own him,” said Jonathan, unable to resist a movement
+of indignation that had never been allowed to satisfy itself. “He ran
+away from home with good reasons in his pocket years ago: he didn’t
+want to be owned again, I reckon.”
+
+Mr. Palfrey left the shop; he felt his own pride too severely wounded
+by the sense that he had let himself be fooled, to feel curiosity for
+further details. The most pressing business was to go home and tell his
+daughter that Freely was a poor sneak, probably a rascal, and that her
+engagement was broken off.
+
+Mr. Prettyman stayed, with some internal self-gratulation that _he_ had
+never given in to Freely, and that Mr. Chaloner would see now what sort
+of fellow it was that he had put over the heads of older parishioners.
+He considered it due from him (Mr. Prettyman) that, for the interests
+of the parish, he should know all that was to be known about this
+“interloper.” Grimworth would have people coming from Botany Bay to
+settle in it, if things went on in this way.
+
+It soon appeared that Jacob could not be made to quit his dear brother
+David except by force. He understood, with a clearness equal to that of
+the most intelligent mind, that Jonathan would take him back to skimmed
+milk, apple-dumpling, broad beans, and pork. And he had found a
+paradise in his brother’s shop. It was a difficult matter to use force
+with Jacob, for he wore heavy nailed boots; and if his pitchfork had
+been mastered, he would have resorted without hesitation to kicks.
+Nothing short of using guile to bind him hand and foot would have made
+all parties safe.
+
+“Let him stay,” said David, with desperate resignation, frightened
+above all things at the idea of further disturbances in his shop, which
+would make his exposure all the more conspicuous. “_You_ go away again,
+and to-morrow I can, perhaps, get him to go to Gilsbrook with me. He’ll
+follow me fast enough, I daresay,” he added, with a half-groan.
+
+“Very well,” said Jonathan, gruffly. “I don’t see why _you_ shouldn’t
+have some trouble and expense with him as well as the rest of us. But
+mind you bring him back safe and soon, else mother’ll never rest.”
+
+On this arrangement being concluded, Mr. Prettyman begged Mr. Jonathan
+Faux to go and take a snack with him, an invitation which was quite
+acceptable; and as honest Jonathan had nothing to be ashamed of, it is
+probable that he was very frank in his communications to the civil
+draper, who, pursuing the benefit of the parish, hastened to make all
+the information he could gather about Freely common parochial property.
+You may imagine that the meeting of the Club at the Woolpack that
+evening was unusually lively. Every member was anxious to prove that he
+had never liked Freely, as he called himself. Faux was his name, was
+it? Fox would have been more suitable. The majority expressed a desire
+to see him hooted out of the town.
+
+Mr. Freely did not venture over his door-sill that day, for he knew
+Jacob would keep at his side, and there was every probability that they
+would have a train of juvenile followers. He sent to engage the
+Woolpack gig for an early hour the next morning; but this order was not
+kept religiously a secret by the landlord. Mr. Freely was informed that
+he could not have the gig till seven; and the Grimworth people were
+early risers. Perhaps they were more alert than usual on this
+particular morning; for when Jacob, with a bag of sweets in his hand,
+was induced to mount the gig with his brother David, the inhabitants of
+the market-place were looking out of their doors and windows, and at
+the turning of the street there was even a muster of apprentices and
+schoolboys, who shouted as they passed in what Jacob took to be a very
+merry and friendly way, nodding and grinning in return. “Huzzay, David
+Faux! how’s your uncle?” was their morning’s greeting. Like other
+pointed things, it was not altogether impromptu.
+
+Even this public derision was not so crushing to David as the horrible
+thought that though he might succeed now in getting Jacob home again
+there would never be any security against his coming back, like a wasp
+to the honey-pot. As long as David lived at Grimworth, Jacob’s return
+would be hanging over him. But could he go on living at Grimworth—an
+object of ridicule, discarded by the Palfreys, after having revelled in
+the consciousness that he was an envied and prosperous confectioner?
+David liked to be envied; he minded less about being loved.
+
+His doubts on this point were soon settled. The mind of Grimworth
+became obstinately set against him and his viands, and the new school
+being finished, the eating-room was closed. If there had been no other
+reason, sympathy with the Palfreys, that respectable family who had
+lived in the parish time out of mind, would have determined all
+well-to-do people to decline Freely’s goods. Besides, he had absconded
+with his mother’s guineas: who knew what else he had done, in Jamaica
+or elsewhere, before he came to Grimworth, worming himself into
+families under false pretences? Females shuddered. Dreadful suspicions
+gathered round him: his green eyes, his bow-legs had a criminal aspect.
+The rector disliked the sight of a man who had imposed upon him; and
+all boys who could not afford to purchase, hooted “David Faux” as they
+passed his shop. Certainly no man now would pay anything for the
+“goodwill” of Mr. Freely’s business, and he would be obliged to quit it
+without a peculium so desirable towards defraying the expense of
+moving.
+
+In a few months the shop in the market-place was again to let, and Mr.
+David Faux, _alias_ Mr. Edward Freely, had gone—nobody at Grimworth
+knew whither. In this way the demoralization of Grimworth women was
+checked. Young Mrs. Steene renewed her efforts to make light
+mince-pies, and having at last made a batch so excellent that Mr.
+Steene looked at her with complacency as he ate them, and said they
+were the best he had ever eaten in his life, she thought less of
+bulbuls and renegades ever after. The secrets of the finer cookery were
+revived in the breasts of matronly house-wives, and daughters were
+again anxious to be initiated in them.
+
+You will further, I hope, be glad to hear, that some purchases of
+drapery made by pretty Penny, in preparation for her marriage with Mr.
+Freely, came in quite as well for her wedding with young Towers as if
+they had been made expressly for the latter occasion. For Penny’s
+complexion had not altered, and blue always became it best.
+
+Here ends the story of Mr. David Faux, confectioner, and his brother
+Jacob. And we see in it, I think, an admirable instance of the
+unexpected forms in which the great Nemesis hides herself.
+
+(1860)
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER JACOB ***
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Brother Jacob, by George Eliot</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Brother Jacob</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May, 2000 [eBook #2171]<br />
+[Most recently updated: June 23, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Price</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER JACOB ***</div>
+
+<h1>Brother Jacob</h1>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">by George Eliot</h2>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p>
+Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that of blindly
+taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been sufficiently
+considered. How is the son of a British yeoman, who has been fed principally on
+salt pork and yeast dumplings, to know that there is satiety for the human
+stomach even in a paradise of glass jars full of sugared almonds and pink
+lozenges, and that the tedium of life can reach a pitch where plum-buns at
+discretion cease to offer the slightest excitement? Or how, at the tender age
+when a confectioner seems to him a very prince whom all the world must
+envy&mdash;who breakfasts on macaroons, dines on meringues, sups on
+twelfth-cake, and fills up the intermediate hours with sugar-candy or
+peppermint&mdash;how is he to foresee the day of sad wisdom, when he will
+discern that the confectioner&rsquo;s calling is not socially influential, or
+favourable to a soaring ambition? I have known a man who turned out to have a
+metaphysical genius, incautiously, in the period of youthful buoyancy, commence
+his career as a dancing-master; and you may imagine the use that was made of
+this initial mistake by opponents who felt themselves bound to warn the public
+against his doctrine of the Inconceivable. He could not give up his
+dancing-lessons, because he made his bread by them, and metaphysics would not
+have found him in so much as salt to his bread. It was really the same with Mr.
+David Faux and the confectionery business. His uncle, the butler at the great
+house close by Brigford, had made a pet of him in his early boyhood, and it was
+on a visit to this uncle that the confectioners&rsquo; shops in that brilliant
+town had, on a single day, fired his tender imagination. He carried home the
+pleasing illusion that a confectioner must be at once the happiest and the
+foremost of men, since the things he made were not only the most beautiful to
+behold, but the very best eating, and such as the Lord Mayor must always order
+largely for his private recreation; so that when his father declared he must be
+put to a trade, David chose his line without a moment&rsquo;s hesitation; and,
+with a rashness inspired by a sweet tooth, wedded himself irrevocably to
+confectionery. Soon, however, the tooth lost its relish and fell into blank
+indifference; and all the while, his mind expanded, his ambition took new
+shapes, which could hardly be satisfied within the sphere his youthful ardour
+had chosen. But what was he to do? He was a young man of much mental activity,
+and, above all, gifted with a spirit of contrivance; but then, his faculties
+would not tell with great effect in any other medium than that of candied
+sugars, conserves, and pastry. Say what you will about the identity of the
+reasoning process in all branches of thought, or about the advantage of coming
+to subjects with a fresh mind, the adjustment of butter to flour, and of heat
+to pastry, is <i>not</i> the best preparation for the office of prime minister;
+besides, in the present imperfectly-organized state of society, there are
+social barriers. David could invent delightful things in the way of drop-cakes,
+and he had the widest views of the sugar department; but in other directions he
+certainly felt hampered by the want of knowledge and practical skill; and the
+world is so inconveniently constituted, that the vague consciousness of being a
+fine fellow is no guarantee of success in any line of business.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This difficulty pressed with some severity on Mr. David Faux, even before his
+apprenticeship was ended. His soul swelled with an impatient sense that he
+ought to become something very remarkable&mdash;that it was quite out of the
+question for him to put up with a narrow lot as other men did: he scorned the
+idea that he could accept an average. He was sure there was nothing average
+about him: even such a person as Mrs. Tibbits, the washer-woman, perceived it,
+and probably had a preference for his linen. At that particular period he was
+weighing out gingerbread nuts; but such an anomaly could not continue. No
+position could be suited to Mr. David Faux that was not in the highest degree
+easy to the flesh and flattering to the spirit. If he had fallen on the present
+times, and enjoyed the advantages of a Mechanic&rsquo;s Institute, he would
+certainly have taken to literature and have written reviews; but his education
+had not been liberal. He had read some novels from the adjoining circulating
+library, and had even bought the story of <i>Inkle and Yarico</i>, which had
+made him feel very sorry for poor Mr. Inkle; so that his ideas might not have
+been below a certain mark of the literary calling; but his spelling and diction
+were too unconventional.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When a man is not adequately appreciated or comfortably placed in his own
+country, his thoughts naturally turn towards foreign climes; and David&rsquo;s
+imagination circled round and round the utmost limits of his geographical
+knowledge, in search of a country where a young gentleman of pasty visage,
+lipless mouth, and stumpy hair, would be likely to be received with the
+hospitable enthusiasm which he had a right to expect. Having a general idea of
+America as a country where the population was chiefly black, it appeared to him
+the most propitious destination for an emigrant who, to begin with, had the
+broad and easily recognizable merit of whiteness; and this idea gradually took
+such strong possession of him that Satan seized the opportunity of suggesting
+to him that he might emigrate under easier circumstances, if he supplied
+himself with a little money from his master&rsquo;s till. But that evil spirit,
+whose understanding, I am convinced, has been much overrated, quite wasted his
+time on this occasion. David would certainly have liked well to have some of
+his master&rsquo;s money in his pocket, if he had been sure his master would
+have been the only man to suffer for it; but he was a cautious youth, and quite
+determined to run no risks on his own account. So he stayed out his
+apprenticeship, and committed no act of dishonesty that was at all likely to be
+discovered, reserving his plan of emigration for a future opportunity. And the
+circumstances under which he carried it out were in this wise. Having been at
+home a week or two partaking of the family beans, he had used his leisure in
+ascertaining a fact which was of considerable importance to him, namely, that
+his mother had a small sum in guineas painfully saved from her maiden
+perquisites, and kept in the corner of a drawer where her baby-linen had
+reposed for the last twenty years&mdash;ever since her son David had taken to
+his feet, with a slight promise of bow-legs which had not been altogether
+unfulfilled. Mr. Faux, senior, had told his son very frankly, that he must not
+look to being set up in business by <i>him</i>: with seven sons, and one of
+them a very healthy and well-developed idiot, who consumed a dumpling about
+eight inches in diameter every day, it was pretty well if they got a hundred
+apiece at his death. Under these circumstances, what was David to do? It was
+certainly hard that he should take his mother&rsquo;s money; but he saw no
+other ready means of getting any, and it was not to be expected that a young
+man of his merit should put up with inconveniences that could be avoided.
+Besides, it is not robbery to take property belonging to your mother: she
+doesn&rsquo;t prosecute you. And David was very well behaved to his mother; he
+comforted her by speaking highly of himself to her, and assuring her that he
+never fell into the vices he saw practised by other youths of his own age, and
+that he was particularly fond of honesty. If his mother would have given him
+her twenty guineas as a reward of this noble disposition, he really would not
+have stolen them from her, and it would have been more agreeable to his
+feelings. Nevertheless, to an active mind like David&rsquo;s, ingenuity is not
+without its pleasures: it was rather an interesting occupation to become
+stealthily acquainted with the wards of his mother&rsquo;s simple key (not in
+the least like Chubb&rsquo;s patent), and to get one that would do its work
+equally well; and also to arrange a little drama by which he would escape
+suspicion, and run no risk of forfeiting the prospective hundred at his
+father&rsquo;s death, which would be convenient in the improbable case of his
+<i>not</i> making a large fortune in the &ldquo;Indies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+First, he spoke freely of his intention to start shortly for Liverpool and take
+ship for America; a resolution which cost his good mother some pain, for, after
+Jacob the idiot, there was not one of her sons to whom her heart clung more
+than to her youngest-born, David. Next, it appeared to him that Sunday
+afternoon, when everybody was gone to church except Jacob and the cowboy, was
+so singularly favourable an opportunity for sons who wanted to appropriate
+their mothers&rsquo; guineas, that he half thought it must have been kindly
+intended by Providence for such purposes. Especially the third Sunday in Lent;
+because Jacob had been out on one of his occasional wanderings for the last two
+days; and David, being a timid young man, had a considerable dread and hatred
+of Jacob, as of a large personage who went about habitually with a pitchfork in
+his hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nothing could be easier, then, than for David on this Sunday afternoon to
+decline going to church, on the ground that he was going to tea at Mr.
+Lunn&rsquo;s, whose pretty daughter Sally had been an early flame of his, and,
+when the church-goers were at a safe distance, to abstract the guineas from
+their wooden box and slip them into a small canvas bag&mdash;nothing easier
+than to call to the cowboy that he was going, and tell him to keep an eye on
+the house for fear of Sunday tramps. David thought it would be easy, too, to
+get to a small thicket and bury his bag in a hole he had already made and
+covered up under the roots of an old hollow ash, and he had, in fact, found the
+hole without a moment&rsquo;s difficulty, had uncovered it, and was about
+gently to drop the bag into it, when the sound of a large body rustling towards
+him with something like a bellow was such a surprise to David, who, as a
+gentleman gifted with much contrivance, was naturally only prepared for what he
+expected, that instead of dropping the bag gently he let it fall so as to make
+it untwist and vomit forth the shining guineas. In the same moment he looked up
+and saw his dear brother Jacob close upon him, holding the pitchfork so that
+the bright smooth prongs were a yard in advance of his own body, and about a
+foot off David&rsquo;s. (A learned friend, to whom I once narrated this
+history, observed that it was David&rsquo;s guilt which made these prongs
+formidable, and that the &ldquo;mens nil conscia sibi&rdquo; strips a pitchfork
+of all terrors. I thought this idea so valuable, that I obtained his leave to
+use it on condition of suppressing his name.) Nevertheless, David did not
+entirely lose his presence of mind; for in that case he would have sunk on the
+earth or started backward; whereas he kept his ground and smiled at Jacob, who
+nodded his head up and down, and said, &ldquo;Hoich, Zavy!&rdquo; in a
+painfully equivocal manner. David&rsquo;s heart was beating audibly, and if he
+had had any lips they would have been pale; but his mental activity, instead of
+being paralysed, was stimulated. While he was inwardly praying (he always
+prayed when he was much frightened)&mdash;&ldquo;Oh, save me this once, and
+I&rsquo;ll never get into danger again!&rdquo;&mdash;he was thrusting his hand
+into his pocket in search of a box of yellow lozenges, which he had brought
+with him from Brigford among other delicacies of the same portable kind, as a
+means of conciliating proud beauty, and more particularly the beauty of Miss
+Sarah Lunn. Not one of these delicacies had he ever offered to poor Jacob, for
+David was not a young man to waste his jujubes and barley-sugar in giving
+pleasure to people from whom he expected nothing. But an idiot with equivocal
+intentions and a pitchfork is as well worth flattering and cajoling as if he
+were Louis Napoleon. So David, with a promptitude equal to the occasion, drew
+out his box of yellow lozenges, lifted the lid, and performed a pantomime with
+his mouth and fingers, which was meant to imply that he was delighted to see
+his dear brother Jacob, and seized the opportunity of making him a small
+present, which he would find particularly agreeable to the taste. Jacob, you
+understand, was not an intense idiot, but within a certain limited range knew
+how to choose the good and reject the evil: he took one lozenge, by way of
+test, and sucked it as if he had been a philosopher; then, in as great an
+ecstacy at its new and complex savour as Caliban at the taste of
+Trinculo&rsquo;s wine, chuckled and stroked this suddenly beneficent brother,
+and held out his hand for more; for, except in fits of anger, Jacob was not
+ferocious or needlessly predatory. David&rsquo;s courage half returned, and he
+left off praying; pouring a dozen lozenges into Jacob&rsquo;s palm, and trying
+to look very fond of him. He congratulated himself that he had formed the plan
+of going to see Miss Sally Lunn this afternoon, and that, as a consequence, he
+had brought with him these propitiatory delicacies: he was certainly a lucky
+fellow; indeed, it was always likely Providence should be fonder of him than of
+other apprentices, and since he <i>was</i> to be interrupted, why, an idiot was
+preferable to any other sort of witness. For the first time in his life, David
+thought he saw the advantage of idiots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for Jacob, he had thrust his pitchfork into the ground, and had thrown
+himself down beside it, in thorough abandonment to the unprecedented pleasure
+of having five lozenges in his mouth at once, blinking meanwhile, and making
+inarticulate sounds of gustative content. He had not yet given any sign of
+noticing the guineas, but in seating himself he had laid his broad right hand
+on them, and unconsciously kept it in that position, absorbed in the sensations
+of his palate. If he could only be kept so occupied with the lozenges as not to
+see the guineas before David could manage to cover them! That was David&rsquo;s
+best hope of safety; for Jacob knew his mother&rsquo;s guineas; it had been
+part of their common experience as boys to be allowed to look at these handsome
+coins, and rattle them in their box on high days and holidays, and among all
+Jacob&rsquo;s narrow experiences as to money, this was likely to be the most
+memorable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Here, Jacob,&rdquo; said David, in an insinuating tone, handing the box
+to him, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give &rsquo;em all to you. Run!&mdash;make
+haste!&mdash;else somebody&rsquo;ll come and take &rsquo;em.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+David, not having studied the psychology of idiots, was not aware that they are
+not to be wrought upon by imaginative fears. Jacob took the box with his left
+hand, but saw no necessity for running away. Was ever a promising young man
+wishing to lay the foundation of his fortune by appropriating his
+mother&rsquo;s guineas obstructed by such a day-mare as this? But the moment
+must come when Jacob would move his right hand to draw off the lid of the tin
+box, and then David would sweep the guineas into the hole with the utmost
+address and swiftness, and immediately seat himself upon them. Ah, no!
+It&rsquo;s of no use to have foresight when you are dealing with an idiot: he
+is not to be calculated upon. Jacob&rsquo;s right hand was given to vague
+clutching and throwing; it suddenly clutched the guineas as if they had been so
+many pebbles, and was raised in an attitude which promised to scatter them like
+seed over a distant bramble, when, from some prompting or other&mdash;probably
+of an unwonted sensation&mdash;it paused, descended to Jacob&rsquo;s knee, and
+opened slowly under the inspection of Jacob&rsquo;s dull eyes. David began to
+pray again, but immediately desisted&mdash;another resource having occurred to
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mother! zinnies!&rdquo; exclaimed the innocent Jacob. Then, looking at
+David, he said, interrogatively, &ldquo;Box?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Hush! hush!&rdquo; said David, summoning all his ingenuity in this
+severe strait. &ldquo;See, Jacob!&rdquo; He took the tin box from his
+brother&rsquo;s hand, and emptied it of the lozenges, returning half of them to
+Jacob, but secretly keeping the rest in his own hand. Then he held out the
+empty box, and said, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s the box, Jacob! The box for the
+guineas!&rdquo; gently sweeping them from Jacob&rsquo;s palm into the box.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This procedure was not objectionable to Jacob; on the contrary, the guineas
+clinked so pleasantly as they fell, that he wished for a repetition of the
+sound, and seizing the box, began to rattle it very gleefully. David, seizing
+the opportunity, deposited his reserve of lozenges in the ground and hastily
+swept some earth over them. &ldquo;Look, Jacob!&rdquo; he said, at last. Jacob
+paused from his clinking, and looked into the hole, while David began to
+scratch away the earth, as if in doubtful expectation. When the lozenges were
+laid bare, he took them out one by one, and gave them to Jacob.
+&ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; he said, in a loud whisper, &ldquo;Tell nobody&mdash;all
+for Jacob&mdash;hush&mdash;sh&mdash;sh! Put guineas in the
+hole&mdash;they&rsquo;ll come out like this!&rdquo; To make the lesson more
+complete, he took a guinea, and lowering it into the hole, said, &ldquo;Put in
+<i>so</i>.&rdquo; Then, as he took the last lozenge out, he said, &ldquo;Come
+out <i>so</i>,&rdquo; and put the lozenge into Jacob&rsquo;s hospitable mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jacob turned his head on one side, looked first at his brother and then at the
+hole, like a reflective monkey, and, finally, laid the box of guineas in the
+hole with much decision. David made haste to add every one of the stray coins,
+put on the lid, and covered it well with earth, saying in his meet coaxing
+tone&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take &rsquo;m out to-morrow, Jacob; all for Jacob!
+Hush&mdash;sh&mdash;sh!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jacob, to whom this once indifferent brother had all at once become a sort of
+sweet-tasted fetish, stroked David&rsquo;s best coat with his adhesive fingers,
+and then hugged him with an accompaniment of that mingled chuckling and
+gurgling by which he was accustomed to express the milder passions. But if he
+had chosen to bite a small morsel out of his beneficent brother&rsquo;s cheek,
+David would have been obliged to bear it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And here I must pause, to point out to you the short-sightedness of human
+contrivance. This ingenious young man, Mr. David Faux, thought he had achieved
+a triumph of cunning when he had associated himself in his brother&rsquo;s
+rudimentary mind with the flavour of yellow lozenges. But he had yet to learn
+that it is a dreadful thing to make an idiot fond of you, when you yourself are
+not of an affectionate disposition: especially an idiot with a
+pitchfork&mdash;obviously a difficult friend to shake off by rough usage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may seem to you rather a blundering contrivance for a clever young man to
+bury the guineas. But, if everything had turned out as David had calculated,
+you would have seen that his plan was worthy of his talents. The guineas would
+have lain safely in the earth while the theft was discovered, and David, with
+the calm of conscious innocence, would have lingered at home, reluctant to say
+good-bye to his dear mother while she was in grief about her guineas; till at
+length, on the eve of his departure, he would have disinterred them in the
+strictest privacy, and carried them on his own person without inconvenience.
+But David, you perceive, had reckoned without his host, or, to speak more
+precisely, without his idiot brother&mdash;an item of so uncertain and
+fluctuating a character, that I doubt whether he would not have puzzled the
+astute heroes of M. de Balzac, whose foresight is so remarkably at home in the
+future.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was clear to David now that he had only one alternative before him: he must
+either renounce the guineas, by quietly putting them back in his mother&rsquo;s
+drawer (a course not unattended with difficulty); or he must leave more than a
+suspicion behind him, by departing early the next morning without giving
+notice, and with the guineas in his pocket. For if he gave notice that he was
+going, his mother, he knew, would insist on fetching from her box of guineas
+the three she had always promised him as his share; indeed, in his original
+plan, he had counted on this as a means by which the theft would be discovered
+under circumstances that would themselves speak for his innocence; but now, as
+I need hardly explain, that well-combined plan was completely frustrated. Even
+if David could have bribed Jacob with perpetual lozenges, an idiot&rsquo;s
+secrecy is itself betrayal. He dared not even go to tea at Mr. Lunn&rsquo;s,
+for in that case he would have lost sight of Jacob, who, in his impatience for
+the crop of lozenges, might scratch up the box again while he was absent, and
+carry it home&mdash;depriving him at once of reputation and guineas. No! he
+must think of nothing all the rest of this day, but of coaxing Jacob and
+keeping him out of mischief. It was a fatiguing and anxious evening to David;
+nevertheless, he dared not go to sleep without tying a piece of string to his
+thumb and great toe, to secure his frequent waking; for he meant to be up with
+the first peep of dawn, and be far out of reach before breakfast-time. His
+father, he thought, would certainly cut him off with a shilling; but what then?
+Such a striking young man as he would be sure to be well received in the West
+Indies: in foreign countries there are always openings&mdash;even for cats. It
+was probable that some Princess Yarico would want him to marry her, and make
+him presents of very large jewels beforehand; after which, he needn&rsquo;t
+marry her unless he liked. David had made up his mind not to steal any more,
+even from people who were fond of him: it was an unpleasant way of making your
+fortune in a world where you were likely to surprised in the act by brothers.
+Such alarms did not agree with David&rsquo;s constitution, and he had felt so
+much nausea this evening that no doubt his liver was affected. Besides, he
+would have been greatly hurt not to be thought well of in the world: he always
+meant to make a figure, and be thought worthy of the best seats and the best
+morsels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ruminating to this effect on the brilliant future in reserve for him, David by
+the help of his check-string kept himself on the alert to seize the time of
+earliest dawn for his rising and departure. His brothers, of course, were early
+risers, but he should anticipate them by at least an hour and a half, and the
+little room which he had to himself as only an occasional visitor, had its
+window over the horse-block, so that he could slip out through the window
+without the least difficulty. Jacob, the horrible Jacob, had an awkward trick
+of getting up before everybody else, to stem his hunger by emptying the
+milk-bowl that was &ldquo;duly set&rdquo; for him; but of late he had taken to
+sleeping in the hay-loft, and if he came into the house, it would be on the
+opposite side to that from which David was making his exit. There was no need
+to think of Jacob; yet David was liberal enough to bestow a curse on
+him&mdash;it was the only thing he ever did bestow gratuitously. His small
+bundle of clothes was ready packed, and he was soon treading lightly on the
+steps of the horse-block, soon walking at a smart pace across the fields
+towards the thicket. It would take him no more than two minutes to get out the
+box; he could make out the tree it was under by the pale strip where the bark
+was off, although the dawning light was rather dimmer in the thicket. But what,
+in the name of&mdash;burnt pastry&mdash;was that large body with a staff
+planted beside it, close at the foot of the ash-tree? David paused, not to make
+up his mind as to the nature of the apparition&mdash;he had not the happiness
+of doubting for a moment that the staff was Jacob&rsquo;s pitchfork&mdash;but
+to gather the self-command necessary for addressing his brother with a
+sufficiently honeyed accent. Jacob was absorbed in scratching up the earth, and
+had not heard David&rsquo;s approach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I say, Jacob,&rdquo; said David in a loud whisper, just as the tin box
+was lifted out of the hole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jacob looked up, and discerning his sweet-flavoured brother, nodded and grinned
+in the dim light in a way that made him seem to David like a triumphant demon.
+If he had been of an impetuous disposition, he would have snatched the
+pitchfork from the ground and impaled this fraternal demon. But David was by no
+means impetuous; he was a young man greatly given to calculate consequences, a
+habit which has been held to be the foundation of virtue. But somehow it had
+not precisely that effect in David: he calculated whether an action would harm
+himself, or whether it would only harm other people. In the former case he was
+very timid about satisfying his immediate desires, but in the latter he would
+risk the result with much courage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Give it me, Jacob,&rdquo; he said, stooping down and patting his
+brother. &ldquo;Let us see.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jacob, finding the lid rather tight, gave the box to his brother in perfect
+faith. David raised the lids and shook his head, while Jacob put his finger in
+and took out a guinea to taste whether the metamorphosis into lozenges was
+complete and satisfactory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No, Jacob; too soon, too soon,&rdquo; said David, when the guinea had
+been tasted. &ldquo;Give it me; we&rsquo;ll go and bury it somewhere else;
+we&rsquo;ll put it in yonder,&rdquo; he added, pointing vaguely toward the
+distance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+David screwed on the lid, while Jacob, looking grave, rose and grasped his
+pitchfork. Then, seeing David&rsquo;s bundle, he snatched it, like a too
+officious Newfoundland, stuck his pitchfork into it and carried it over his
+shoulder in triumph as he accompanied David and the box out of the thicket.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What on earth was David to do? It would have been easy to frown at Jacob, and
+kick him, and order him to get away; but David dared as soon have kicked the
+bull. Jacob was quiet as long as he was treated indulgently; but on the
+slightest show of anger, he became unmanageable, and was liable to fits of fury
+which would have made him formidable even without his pitchfork. There was no
+mastery to be obtained over him except by kindness or guile. David tried guile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Go, Jacob,&rdquo; he said, when they were out of the
+thicket&mdash;pointing towards the house as he spoke; &ldquo;go and fetch me a
+spade&mdash;a spade. But give <i>me</i> the bundle,&rdquo; he added, trying to
+reach it from the fork, where it hung high above Jacob&rsquo;s tall shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Jacob showed as much alacrity in obeying as a wasp shows in leaving a
+sugar-basin. Near David, he felt himself in the vicinity of lozenges: he
+chuckled and rubbed his brother&rsquo;s back, brandishing the bundle higher out
+of reach. David, with an inward groan, changed his tactics, and walked on as
+fast as he could. It was not safe to linger. Jacob would get tired of following
+him, or, at all events, could be eluded. If they could once get to the distant
+highroad, a coach would overtake them, David would mount it, having previously
+by some ingenious means secured his bundle, and then Jacob might howl and
+flourish his pitchfork as much as he liked. Meanwhile he was under the fatal
+necessity of being very kind to this ogre, and of providing a large breakfast
+for him when they stopped at a roadside inn. It was already three hours since
+they had started, and David was tired. Would no coach be coming up soon? he
+inquired. No coach for the next two hours. But there was a carrier&rsquo;s cart
+to come immediately, on its way to the next town. If he could slip out, even
+leaving his bundle behind, and get into the cart without Jacob! But there was a
+new obstacle. Jacob had recently discovered a remnant of sugar-candy in one of
+his brother&rsquo;s tail-pockets; and, since then, had cautiously kept his hold
+on that limb of the garment, perhaps with an expectation that there would be a
+further development of sugar-candy after a longer or shorter interval. Now
+every one who has worn a coat will understand the sensibilities that must keep
+a man from starting away in a hurry when there is a grasp on his coat-tail.
+David looked forward to being well received among strangers, but it might make
+a difference if he had only one tail to his coat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He felt himself in a cold perspiration. He could walk no more: he must get into
+the cart and let Jacob get in with him. Presently a cheering idea occurred to
+him: after so large a breakfast, Jacob would be sure to go to sleep in the
+cart; you see at once that David meant to seize his bundle, jump out, and be
+free. His expectation was partly fulfilled: Jacob did go to sleep in the cart,
+but it was in a peculiar attitude&mdash;it was with his arms tightly fastened
+round his dear brother&rsquo;s body; and if ever David attempted to move, the
+grasp tightened with the force of an affectionate boa-constrictor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Th&rsquo; innicent&rsquo;s fond on you,&rdquo; observed the carrier,
+thinking that David was probably an amiable brother, and wishing to pay him a
+compliment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+David groaned. The ways of thieving were not ways of pleasantness. Oh, why had
+he an idiot brother? Oh, why, in general, was the world so constituted that a
+man could not take his mother&rsquo;s guineas comfortably? David became grimly
+speculative.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Copious dinner at noon for Jacob; but little dinner, because little appetite,
+for David. Instead of eating, he plied Jacob with beer; for through this
+liberality he descried a hope. Jacob fell into a dead sleep, at last, without
+having his arms round David, who paid the reckoning, took his bundle, and
+walked off. In another half-hour he was on the coach on his way to Liverpool,
+smiling the smile of the triumphant wicked. He was rid of Jacob&mdash;he was
+bound for the Indies, where a gullible princess awaited him. He would never
+steal any more, but there would be no need; he would show himself so deserving,
+that people would make him presents freely. He must give up the notion of his
+father&rsquo;s legacy; but it was not likely he would ever want that trifle;
+and even if he did&mdash;why, it was a compensation to think that in being for
+ever divided from his family he was divided from Jacob, more terrible than
+Gorgon or Demogorgon to David&rsquo;s timid green eyes. Thank heaven, he should
+never see Jacob any more!
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was nearly six years after the departure of Mr. David Faux for the West
+Indies, that the vacant shop in the market-place at Grimworth was understood to
+have been let to the stranger with a sallow complexion and a buff cravat, whose
+first appearance had caused some excitement in the bar of the Woolpack, where
+he had called to wait for the coach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Grimworth, to a discerning eye, was a good place to set up shopkeeping in.
+There was no competition in it at present; the Church-people had their own
+grocer and draper; the Dissenters had theirs; and the two or three butchers
+found a ready market for their joints without strict reference to religious
+persuasion&mdash;except that the rector&rsquo;s wife had given a general order
+for the veal sweet-breads and the mutton kidneys, while Mr. Rodd, the Baptist
+minister, had requested that, so far as was compatible with the fair
+accommodation of other customers, the sheep&rsquo;s trotters might be reserved
+for him. And it was likely to be a growing place, for the trustees of Mr.
+Zephaniah Crypt&rsquo;s Charity, under the stimulus of a late visitation by
+commissioners, were beginning to apply long-accumulating funds to the
+rebuilding of the Yellow Coat School, which was henceforth to be carried
+forward on a greatly-extended scale, the testator having left no restrictions
+concerning the curriculum, but only concerning the coat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The shopkeepers at Grimworth were by no means unanimous as to the advantages
+promised by this prospect of increased population and trading, being
+substantial men, who liked doing a quiet business in which they were sure of
+their customers, and could calculate their returns to a nicety. Hitherto, it
+had been held a point of honour by the families in Grimworth parish, to buy
+their sugar and their flannel at the shop where their fathers and mothers had
+bought before them; but, if newcomers were to bring in the system of
+neck-and-neck trading, and solicit feminine eyes by gown-pieces laid in
+fan-like folds, and surmounted by artificial flowers, giving them a factitious
+charm (for on what human figure would a gown sit like a fan, or what female
+head was like a bunch of China-asters?), or, if new grocers were to fill their
+windows with mountains of currants and sugar, made seductive by contrast and
+tickets,&mdash;what security was there for Grimworth, that a vagrant spirit in
+shopping, once introduced, would not in the end carry the most important
+families to the larger market town of Cattleton, where, business being done on
+a system of small profits and quick returns, the fashions were of the freshest,
+and goods of all kinds might be bought at an advantage?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With this view of the times predominant among the tradespeople at Grimworth,
+their uncertainty concerning the nature of the business which the
+sallow-complexioned stranger was about to set up in the vacant shop, naturally
+gave some additional strength to the fears of the less sanguine. If he was
+going to sell drapery, it was probable that a pale-faced fellow like that would
+deal in showy and inferior articles&mdash;printed cottons and muslins which
+would leave their dye in the wash-tub, jobbed linen full of knots, and flannel
+that would soon look like gauze. If grocery, then it was to be hoped that no
+mother of a family would trust the teas of an untried grocer. Such things had
+been known in some parishes as tradesmen going about canvassing for custom with
+cards in their pockets: when people came from nobody knew where, there was no
+knowing what they might do. It was a thousand pities that Mr. Moffat, the
+auctioneer and broker, had died without leaving anybody to follow him in the
+business, and Mrs. Cleve&rsquo;s trustee ought to have known better than to let
+a shop to a stranger. Even the discovery that ovens were being put up on the
+premises, and that the shop was, in fact, being fitted up for a confectioner
+and pastry-cook&rsquo;s business, hitherto unknown in Grimworth, did not quite
+suffice to turn the scale in the newcomer&rsquo;s favour, though the landlady
+at the Woolpack defended him warmly, said he seemed to be a very clever young
+man, and from what she could make out, came of a very good family; indeed, was
+most likely a good many people&rsquo;s betters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It certainly made a blaze of light and colour, almost as if a rainbow had
+suddenly descended into the market-place, when, one fine morning, the shutters
+were taken down from the new shop, and the two windows displayed their
+decorations. On one side, there were the variegated tints of collared and
+marbled meats, set off by bright green leaves, the pale brown of glazed pies,
+the rich tones of sauces and bottled fruits enclosed in their veil of
+glass&mdash;altogether a sight to bring tears into the eyes of a Dutch painter;
+and on the other, there was a predominance of the more delicate hues of pink,
+and white, and yellow, and buff, in the abundant lozenges, candies, sweet
+biscuits and icings, which to the eyes of a bilious person might easily have
+been blended into a fa&euml;ry landscape in Turner&rsquo;s latest style. What a
+sight to dawn upon the eyes of Grimworth children! They almost forgot to go to
+their dinner that day, their appetites being preoccupied with imaginary
+sugar-plums; and I think even Punch, setting up his tabernacle in the
+market-place, would not have succeeded in drawing them away from those
+shop-windows, where they stood according to gradations of size and strength,
+the biggest and strongest being nearest the window, and the little ones in the
+outermost rows lifting wide-open eyes and mouths towards the upper tier of
+jars, like small birds at meal-time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The elder inhabitants pished and pshawed a little at the folly of the new
+shopkeeper in venturing on such an outlay in goods that would not keep; to be
+sure, Christmas was coming, but what housewife in Grimworth would not think
+shame to furnish forth her table with articles that were not home-cooked? No,
+no. Mr. Edward Freely, as he called himself, was deceived, if he thought
+Grimworth money was to flow into his pockets on such terms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Edward Freely was the name that shone in gilt letters on a mazarine ground over
+the doorplace of the new shop&mdash;a generous-sounding name, that might have
+belonged to the open-hearted, improvident hero of an old comedy, who would have
+delighted in raining sugared almonds, like a new manna-gift, among that small
+generation outside the windows. But Mr. Edward Freely was a man whose impulses
+were kept in due subordination: he held that the desire for sweets and pastry
+must only be satisfied in a direct ratio with the power of paying for them. If
+the smallest child in Grimworth would go to him with a halfpenny in its tiny
+fist, he would, after ringing the halfpenny, deliver a just equivalent in
+&ldquo;rock.&rdquo; He was not a man to cheat even the smallest child&mdash;he
+often said so, observing at the same time that he loved honesty, and also that
+he was very tender-hearted, though he didn&rsquo;t show his feelings as some
+people did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Either in reward of such virtue, or according to some more hidden law of
+sequence, Mr. Freely&rsquo;s business, in spite of prejudice, started under
+favourable auspices. For Mrs. Chaloner, the rector&rsquo;s wife, was among the
+earliest customers at the shop, thinking it only right to encourage a new
+parishioner who had made a decorous appearance at church; and she found Mr.
+Freely a most civil, obliging young man, and intelligent to a surprising degree
+for a confectioner; well-principled, too, for in giving her useful hints about
+choosing sugars he had thrown much light on the dishonesty of other tradesmen.
+Moreover, he had been in the West Indies, and had seen the very estate which
+had been her poor grandfather&rsquo;s property; and he said the missionaries
+were the only cause of the negro&rsquo;s discontent&mdash;an observing young
+man, evidently. Mrs. Chaloner ordered wine-biscuits and olives, and gave Mr.
+Freely to understand that she should find his shop a great convenience. So did
+the doctor&rsquo;s wife, and so did Mrs. Gate, at the large carding-mill, who,
+having high connexions frequently visiting her, might be expected to have a
+large consumption of ratafias and macaroons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The less aristocratic matrons of Grimworth seemed likely at first to justify
+their husbands&rsquo; confidence that they would never pay a percentage of
+profits on drop-cakes, instead of making their own, or get up a hollow show of
+liberal housekeeping by purchasing slices of collared meat when a neighbour
+came in for supper. But it is my task to narrate the gradual corruption of
+Grimworth manners from their primitive simplicity&mdash;a melancholy task, if
+it were not cheered by the prospect of the fine peripateia or downfall by which
+the progress of the corruption was ultimately checked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was young Mrs. Steene, the veterinary surgeons wife, who first gave way to
+temptation. I fear she had been rather over-educated for her station in life,
+for she knew by heart many passages in <i>Lalla Rookh</i>, the <i>Corsair</i>,
+and the <i>Siege of Corinth</i>, which had given her a distaste for domestic
+occupations, and caused her a withering disappointment at the discovery that
+Mr. Steene, since his marriage, had lost all interest in the
+&ldquo;bulbul,&rdquo; openly preferred discussing the nature of spavin with a
+coarse neighbour, and was angry if the pudding turned out watery&mdash;indeed,
+was simply a top-booted &ldquo;vet.&rdquo;, who came in hungry at dinner-time;
+and not in the least like a nobleman turned Corsair out of pure scorn for his
+race, or like a renegade with a turban and crescent, unless it were in the
+irritability of his temper. And scorn is such a very different thing in
+top-boots!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This brutal man had invited a supper-party for Christmas eve, when he would
+expect to see mince-pies on the table. Mrs. Steene had prepared her mince-meat,
+and had devoted much butter, fine flour, and labour, to the making of a batch
+of pies in the morning; but they proved to be so very heavy when they came out
+of the oven, that she could only think with trembling of the moment when her
+husband should catch sight of them on the supper-table. He would storm at her,
+she was certain; and before all the company; and then she should never help
+crying: it was so dreadful to think she had come to that, after the bulbul and
+everything! Suddenly the thought darted through her mind that <i>this once</i>
+she might send for a dish of mince-pies from Freely&rsquo;s: she knew he had
+some. But what was to become of the eighteen heavy mince-pies? Oh, it was of no
+use thinking about that; it was very expensive&mdash;indeed, making mince-pies
+at all was a great expense, when they were not sure to turn out well: it would
+be much better to buy them ready-made. You paid a little more for them, but
+there was no risk of waste.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the sophistry with which this misguided young woman&mdash;enough. Mrs.
+Steene sent for the mince-pies, and, I am grieved to add, garbled her household
+accounts in order to conceal the fact from her husband. This was the second
+step in a downward course, all owing to a young woman&rsquo;s being out of
+harmony with her circumstances, yearning after renegades and bulbuls, and being
+subject to claims from a veterinary surgeon fond of mince-pies. The third step
+was to harden herself by telling the fact of the bought mince-pies to her
+intimate friend Mrs. Mole, who had already guessed it, and who subsequently
+encouraged herself in buying a mould of jelly, instead of exerting her own
+skill, by the reflection that &ldquo;other people&rdquo; did the same sort of
+thing. The infection spread; soon there was a party or clique in Grimworth on
+the side of &ldquo;buying at Freely&rsquo;s&rdquo;; and many husbands, kept for
+some time in the dark on this point, innocently swallowed at two mouthfuls a
+tart on which they were paying a profit of a hundred per cent., and as
+innocently encouraged a fatal disingenuousness in the partners of their bosoms
+by praising the pastry. Others, more keen-sighted, winked at the too frequent
+presentation on washing-days, and at impromptu suppers, of superior
+spiced-beef, which flattered their palates more than the cold remnants they had
+formerly been contented with. Every housewife who had once &ldquo;bought at
+Freely&rsquo;s&rdquo; felt a secret joy when she detected a similar perversion
+in her neighbour&rsquo;s practice, and soon only two or three old-fashioned
+mistresses of families held out in the protest against the growing
+demoralization, saying to their neighbours who came to sup with them, &ldquo;I
+can&rsquo;t offer you Freely&rsquo;s beef, or Freely&rsquo;s cheesecakes;
+everything in our house is home-made; I&rsquo;m afraid you&rsquo;ll hardly have
+any appetite for our plain pastry.&rdquo; The doctor, whose cook was not
+satisfactory, the curate, who kept no cook, and the mining agent, who was a
+great <i>bon vivant</i>, even began to rely on Freely for the greater part of
+their dinner, when they wished to give an entertainment of some brilliancy. In
+short, the business of manufacturing the more fanciful viands was fast passing
+out of the hinds of maids and matrons in private families, and was becoming the
+work of a special commercial organ.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am not ignorant that this sort of thing is called the inevitable course of
+civilization, division of labour, and so forth, and that the maids and matrons
+may be said to have had their hands set free from cookery to add to the wealth
+of society in some other way. Only it happened at Grimworth, which, to be sure,
+was a low place, that the maids and matrons could do nothing with their hands
+at all better than cooking: not even those who had always made heavy cakes and
+leathery pastry. And so it came to pass, that the progress of civilization at
+Grimworth was not otherwise apparent than in the impoverishment of men, the
+gossiping idleness of women, and the heightening prosperity of Mr. Edward
+Freely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Yellow Coat School was a double source of profit to the calculating
+confectioner; for he opened an eating-room for the superior workmen employed on
+the new school, and he accommodated the pupils at the old school by giving
+great attention to the fancy-sugar department. When I think of the sweet-tasted
+swans and other ingenious white shapes crunched by the small teeth of that
+rising generation, I am glad to remember that a certain amount of calcareous
+food has been held good for young creatures whose bones are not quite formed;
+for I have observed these delicacies to have an inorganic flavour which would
+have recommended them greatly to that young lady of the
+<i>Spectator&rsquo;s</i> acquaintance who habitually made her dessert on the
+stems of tobacco-pipes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for the confectioner himself, he made his way gradually into Grimworth
+homes, as his commodities did, in spite of some initial repugnance. Somehow or
+other, his reception as a guest seemed a thing that required justifying, like
+the purchasing of his pastry. In the first place, he was a stranger, and
+therefore open to suspicion; secondly, the confectionery business was so
+entirely new at Grimworth, that its place in the scale of rank had not been
+distinctly ascertained. There was no doubt about drapers and grocers, when they
+came of good old Grimworth families, like Mr. Luff and Mr. Prettyman: they
+visited with the Palfreys, who farmed their own land, played many a game at
+whist with the doctor, and condescended a little towards the timber-merchant,
+who had lately taken to the coal-trade also, and had got new furniture; but
+whether a confectioner should be admitted to this higher level of
+respectability, or should be understood to find his associates among butchers
+and bakers, was a new question on which tradition threw no light. His being a
+bachelor was in his favour, and would perhaps have been enough to turn the
+scale, even if Mr. Edward Freely&rsquo;s other personal pretensions had been of
+an entirely insignificant cast. But so far from this, it very soon appeared
+that he was a remarkable young man, who had been in the West Indies, and had
+seen many wonders by sea and land, so that he could charm the ears of Grimworth
+Desdemonas with stories of strange fishes, especially sharks, which he had
+stabbed in the nick of time by bravely plunging overboard just as the monster
+was turning on his side to devour the cook&rsquo;s mate; of terrible fevers
+which he had undergone in a land where the wind blows from all quarters at
+once; of rounds of toast cut straight from the breadfruit trees; of toes bitten
+off by land-crabs; of large honours that had been offered to him as a man who
+knew what was what, and was therefore particularly needed in a tropical
+climate; and of a Creole heiress who had wept bitterly at his departure. Such
+conversational talents as these, we know, will overcome disadvantages of
+complexion; and young Towers, whose cheeks were of the finest pink, set off by
+a fringe of dark whisker, was quite eclipsed by the presence of the sallow Mr.
+Freely. So exceptional a confectioner elevated the business, and might well
+begin to make disengaged hearts flutter a little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fathers and mothers were naturally more slow and cautious in their recognition
+of the newcomer&rsquo;s merits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an amusing fellow,&rdquo; said Mr. Prettyman, the highly
+respectable grocer. (Mrs. Prettyman was a Miss Fothergill, and her sister had
+married a London mercer.) &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an amusing fellow; and I&rsquo;ve
+no objection to his making one at the Oyster Club; but he&rsquo;s a bit too
+fond of riding the high horse. He&rsquo;s uncommonly knowing, I&rsquo;ll allow;
+but how came he to go to the Indies? I should like that answered. It&rsquo;s
+unnatural in a confectioner. I&rsquo;m not fond of people that have been beyond
+seas, if they can&rsquo;t give a good account how they happened to go. When
+folks go so far off, it&rsquo;s because they&rsquo;ve got little credit nearer
+home&mdash;that&rsquo;s my opinion. However, he&rsquo;s got some good rum; but
+I don&rsquo;t want to be hand and glove with him, for all that.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was this kind of dim suspicion which beclouded the view of Mr.
+Freely&rsquo;s qualities in the maturer minds of Grimworth through the early
+months of his residence there. But when the confectioner ceased to be a
+novelty, the suspicions also ceased to be novel, and people got tired of
+hinting at them, especially as they seemed to be refuted by his advancing
+prosperity and importance. Mr. Freely was becoming a person of influence in the
+parish; he was found useful as an overseer of the poor, having great firmness
+in enduring other people&rsquo;s pain, which firmness, he said, was due to his
+great benevolence; he always did what was good for people in the end. Mr.
+Chaloner had even selected him as clergyman&rsquo;s churchwarden, for he was a
+very handy man, and much more of Mr. Chaloner&rsquo;s opinion in everything
+about church business than the older parishioners. Mr. Freely was a very
+regular churchman, but at the Oyster Club he was sometimes a little free in his
+conversation, more than hinting at a life of Sultanic self-indulgence which he
+had passed in the West Indies, shaking his head now and then and smiling rather
+bitterly, as men are wont to do when they intimate that they have become a
+little too wise to be instructed about a world which has long been flat and
+stale to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For some time he was quite general in his attentions to the fair sex, combining
+the gallantries of a lady&rsquo;s man with a severity of criticism on the
+person and manners of absent belles, which tended rather to stimulate in the
+feminine breast the desire to conquer the approval of so fastidious a judge.
+Nothing short of the very best in the department of female charms and virtues
+could suffice to kindle the ardour of Mr. Edward Freely, who had become
+familiar with the most luxuriant and dazzling beauty in the West Indies. It may
+seem incredible that a confectioner should have ideas and conversation so much
+resembling those to be met with in a higher walk of life, but it must be
+remembered that he had not merely travelled, he had also bow-legs and a sallow,
+small-featured visage, so that nature herself had stamped him for a fastidious
+connoisseur of the fair sex.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last, however, it seemed clear that Cupid had found a sharper arrow than
+usual, and that Mr. Freely&rsquo;s heart was pierced. It was the general talk
+among the young people at Grimworth. But was it really love, and not rather
+ambition? Miss Fullilove, the timber-merchant&rsquo;s daughter, was quite sure
+that if <i>she</i> were Miss Penny Palfrey, she would be cautious; it was not a
+good sign when men looked so much above themselves for a wife. For it was no
+less a person than Miss Penelope Palfrey, second daughter of the Mr. Palfrey
+who farmed his own land, that had attracted Mr. Freely&rsquo;s peculiar regard,
+and conquered his fastidiousness; and no wonder, for the Ideal, as exhibited in
+the finest waxwork, was perhaps never so closely approached by the Real as in
+the person of the pretty Penelope. Her yellowish flaxen hair did not curl
+naturally, I admit, but its bright crisp ringlets were such smooth, perfect
+miniature tubes, that you would have longed to pass your little finger through
+them, and feel their soft elasticity. She wore them in a crop, for in those
+days, when society was in a healthier state, young ladies wore crops long after
+they were twenty, and Penelope was not yet nineteen. Like the waxen ideal, she
+had round blue eyes, and round nostrils in her little nose, and teeth such as
+the ideal would be seen to have, if it ever showed them. Altogether, she was a
+small, round thing, as neat as a pink and white double daisy, and as guileless;
+for I hope it does not argue guile in a pretty damsel of nineteen, to think
+that she should like to have a beau and be &ldquo;engaged,&rdquo; when her
+elder sister had already been in that position a year and a half. To be sure,
+there was young Towers always coming to the house; but Penny felt convinced he
+only came to see her brother, for he never had anything to say to her, and
+never offered her his arm, and was as awkward and silent as possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not unlikely that Mr. Freely had early been smitten by Penny&rsquo;s
+charms, as brought under his observation at church, but he had to make his way
+in society a little before he could come into nearer contact with them; and
+even after he was well received in Grimworth families, it was a long while
+before he could converse with Penny otherwise than in an incidental meeting at
+Mr. Luff&rsquo;s. It was not so easy to get invited to Long Meadows, the
+residence of the Palfreys; for though Mr. Palfrey had been losing money of late
+years, not being able quite to recover his feet after the terrible murrain
+which forced him to borrow, his family were far from considering themselves on
+the same level even as the old-established tradespeople with whom they visited.
+The greatest people, even kings and queens, must visit with somebody, and the
+equals of the great are scarce. They were especially scarce at Grimworth,
+which, as I have before observed, was a low parish, mentioned with the most
+scornful brevity in gazetteers. Even the great people there were far behind
+those of their own standing in other parts of this realm. Mr. Palfrey&rsquo;s
+farmyard doors had the paint all worn off them, and the front garden walks had
+long been merged in a general weediness. Still, his father had been called
+Squire Palfrey, and had been respected by the last Grimworth generation as a
+man who could afford to drink too much in his own house.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pretty Penny was not blind to the fact that Mr. Freely admired her, and she
+felt sure that it was he who had sent her a beautiful valentine; but her sister
+seemed to think so lightly of him (all young ladies think lightly of the
+gentlemen to whom they are not engaged), that Penny never dared mention him,
+and trembled and blushed whenever they met him, thinking of the valentine,
+which was very strong in its expressions, and which she felt guilty of knowing
+by heart. A man who had been to the Indies, and knew the sea so well, seemed to
+her a sort of public character, almost like Robinson Crusoe or Captain Cook;
+and Penny had always wished her husband to be a remarkable personage, likely to
+be put in Mangnall&rsquo;s Questions, with which register of the immortals she
+had become acquainted during her one year at a boarding-school. Only it seemed
+strange that a remarkable man should be a confectioner and pastry-cook, and
+this anomaly quite disturbed Penny&rsquo;s dreams. Her brothers, she knew,
+laughed at men who couldn&rsquo;t sit on horseback well, and called them
+tailors; but her brothers were very rough, and were quite without that power of
+anecdote which made Mr. Freely such a delightful companion. He was a very good
+man, she thought, for she had heard him say at Mr. Luff&rsquo;s, one day, that
+he always wished to do his duty in whatever state of life he might be placed;
+and he knew a great deal of poetry, for one day he had repeated a verse of a
+song. She wondered if he had made the words of the valentine!&mdash;it ended in
+this way:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&ldquo;Without thee, it is pain to live,<br />
+But with thee, it were sweet to die.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Poor Mr. Freely! her father would very likely object&mdash;she felt sure he
+would, for he always called Mr. Freely &ldquo;that sugar-plum fellow.&rdquo;
+Oh, it was very cruel, when true love was crossed in that way, and all because
+Mr. Freely was a confectioner: well, Penny would be true to him, for all that,
+and since his being a confectioner gave her an opportunity of showing her
+faithfulness, she was glad of it. Edward Freely was a pretty name, much better
+than John Towers. Young Towers had offered her a rose out of his button-hole
+the other day, blushing very much; but she refused it, and thought with delight
+how much Mr. Freely would be comforted if he knew her firmness of mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Poor little Penny! the days were so very long among the daisies on a grazing
+farm, and thought is so active&mdash;how was it possible that the inward drama
+should not get the start of the outward? I have known young ladies, much better
+educated, and with an outward world diversified by instructive lectures, to say
+nothing of literature and highly-developed fancy-work, who have spun a cocoon
+of visionary joys and sorrows for themselves, just as Penny did. Her elder
+sister Letitia, who had a prouder style of beauty, and a more worldly ambition,
+was engaged to a wool-factor, who came all the way from Cattelton to see her;
+and everybody knows that a wool-factor takes a very high rank, sometimes
+driving a double-bodied gig. Letty&rsquo;s notions got higher every day, and
+Penny never dared to speak of her cherished griefs to her lofty
+sister&mdash;never dared to propose that they should call at Mr. Freely&rsquo;s
+to buy liquorice, though she had prepared for such an incident by mentioning a
+slight sore throat. So she had to pass the shop on the other side of the
+market-place, and reflect, with a suppressed sigh, that behind those pink and
+white jars somebody was thinking of her tenderly, unconscious of the small
+space that divided her from him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And it was quite true that, when business permitted, Mr. Freely thought a great
+deal of Penny. He thought her prettiness comparable to the loveliest things in
+confectionery; he judged her to be of submissive temper&mdash;likely to wait
+upon him as well as if she had been a negress, and to be silently terrified
+when his liver made him irritable; and he considered the Palfrey family quite
+the best in the parish, possessing marriageable daughters. On the whole, he
+thought her worthy to become Mrs. Edward Freely, and all the more so, because
+it would probably require some ingenuity to win her. Mr. Palfrey was capable of
+horse-whipping a too rash pretender to his daughter&rsquo;s hand; and,
+moreover, he had three tall sons: it was clear that a suitor would be at a
+disadvantage with such a family, unless travel and natural acumen had given him
+a countervailing power of contrivance. And the first idea that occurred to him
+in the matter was, that Mr. Palfrey would object less if he knew that the
+Freelys were a much higher family than his own. It had been foolish modesty in
+him hitherto to conceal the fact that a branch of the Freelys held a manor in
+Yorkshire, and to shut up the portrait of his great uncle the admiral, instead
+of hanging it up where a family portrait should be hung&mdash;over the
+mantelpiece in the parlour. Admiral Freely, K.C.B., once placed in this
+conspicuous position, was seen to have had one arm only, and one eye&mdash;in
+these points resembling the heroic Nelson&mdash;while a certain pallid
+insignificance of feature confirmed the relationship between himself and his
+grand-nephew.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next, Mr. Freely was seized with an irrepressible ambition to posses Mrs.
+Palfrey&rsquo;s receipt for brawn, hers being pronounced on all hands to be
+superior to his own&mdash;as he informed her in a very flattering letter
+carried by his errand-boy. Now Mrs. Palfrey, like other geniuses, wrought by
+instinct rather than by rule, and possessed no receipts&mdash;indeed, despised
+all people who used them, observing that people who pickled by book, must
+pickle by weights and measures, and such nonsense; as for herself, her weights
+and measures were the tip of her finger and the tip of her tongue, and if you
+went nearer, why, of course, for dry goods like flour and spice, you went by
+handfuls and pinches, and for wet, there was a middle-sized jug&mdash;quite the
+best thing whether for much or little, because you might know how much a
+teacupful was if you&rsquo;d got any use of your senses, and you might be sure
+it would take five middle-sized jugs to make a gallon. Knowledge of this kind
+is like Titian&rsquo;s colouring, difficult to communicate; and as Mrs.
+Palfrey, once remarkably handsome, had now become rather stout and asthmatical,
+and scarcely ever left home, her oral teaching could hardly be given anywhere
+except at Long Meadows. Even a matron is not insusceptible to flattery, and the
+prospect of a visitor whose great object would be to listen to her
+conversation, was not without its charms to Mrs. Palfrey. Since there was no
+receipt to be sent in reply to Mr. Freely&rsquo;s humble request, she called on
+her more docile daughter, Penny, to write a note, telling him that her mother
+would be glad to see him and talk with him on brawn, any day that he could call
+at Long Meadows. Penny obeyed with a trembling hand, thinking how wonderfully
+things came about in this world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this way, Mr. Freely got himself introduced into the home of the Palfreys,
+and notwithstanding a tendency in the male part of the family to jeer at him a
+little as &ldquo;peaky&rdquo; and bow-legged, he presently established his
+position as an accepted and frequent guest. Young Towers looked at him with
+increasing disgust when they met at the house on a Sunday, and secretly longed
+to try his ferret upon him, as a piece of vermin which that valuable animal
+would be likely to tackle with unhesitating vigour. But&mdash;so blind
+sometimes are parents&mdash;neither Mr. nor Mrs. Palfrey suspected that Penny
+would have anything to say to a tradesman of questionable rank whose youthful
+bloom was much withered. Young Towers, they thought, had an eye to her, and
+<i>that</i> was likely enough to be a match some day; but Penny was a child at
+present. And all the while Penny was imagining the circumstances under which
+Mr. Freely would make her an offer: perhaps down by the row of damson-trees,
+when they were in the garden before tea; perhaps by letter&mdash;in which case,
+how would the letter begin? &ldquo;Dearest Penelope?&rdquo; or &ldquo;My dear
+Miss Penelope?&rdquo; or straight off, without dear anything, as seemed the
+most natural when people were embarrassed? But, however he might make the
+offer, she would not accept it without her father&rsquo;s consent: she would
+always be true to Mr. Freely, but she would not disobey her father. For Penny
+was a good girl, though some of her female friends were afterwards of opinion
+that it spoke ill for her not to have felt an instinctive repugnance to Mr.
+Freely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But he was cautious, and wished to be quite sure of the ground he trod on. His
+views on marriage were not entirely sentimental, but were as duly mingled with
+considerations of what would be advantageous to a man in his position, as if he
+had had a very large amount of money spent on his education. He was not a man
+to fall in love in the wrong place; and so, he applied himself quite as much to
+conciliate the favour of the parents, as to secure the attachment of Penny.
+Mrs. Palfrey had not been inaccessible to flattery, and her husband, being also
+of mortal mould, would not, it might be hoped, be proof against rum&mdash;that
+very fine Jamaica rum&mdash;of which Mr. Freely expected always to have a
+supply sent him from Jamaica. It was not easy to get Mr. Palfrey into the
+parlour behind the shop, where a mild back-street light fell on the features of
+the heroic admiral; but by getting hold of him rather late one evening as he
+was about to return home from Grimworth, the aspiring lover succeeded in
+persuading him to sup on some collared beef which, after Mrs. Palfrey&rsquo;s
+brawn, he would find the very best of cold eating.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From that hour Mr. Freely felt sure of success: being in privacy with an
+estimable man old enough to be his father, and being rather lonely in the
+world, it was natural he should unbosom himself a little on subjects which he
+could not speak of in a mixed circle&mdash;especially concerning his
+expectations from his uncle in Jamaica, who had no children, and loved his
+nephew Edward better than any one else in the world, though he had been so hurt
+at his leaving Jamaica, that he had threatened to cut him off with a shilling.
+However, he had since written to state his full forgiveness, and though he was
+an eccentric old gentleman and could not bear to give away money during his
+life, Mr. Edward Freely could show Mr. Palfrey the letter which declared,
+plainly enough, who would be the affectionate uncle&rsquo;s heir. Mr. Palfrey
+actually saw the letter, and could not help admiring the spirit of the nephew
+who declared that such brilliant hopes as these made no difference to his
+conduct; he should work at his humble business and make his modest fortune at
+it all the same. If the Jamaica estate was to come to him&mdash;well and good.
+It was nothing very surprising for one of the Freely family to have an estate
+left him, considering the lands that family had possessed in time gone
+by&mdash;nay, still possessed in the Northumberland branch. Would not Mr.
+Palfrey take another glass of rum? and also look at the last year&rsquo;s
+balance of the accounts? Mr. Freely was a man who cared to possess personal
+virtues, and did not pique himself on his family, though some men would.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We know how easily the great Leviathan may be led, when once there is a hook in
+his nose or a bridle in his jaws. Mr. Palfrey was a large man, but, like
+Leviathan&rsquo;s, his bulk went against him when once he had taken a turning.
+He was not a mercurial man, who easily changed his point of view. Enough.
+Before two months were over, he had given his consent to Mr. Freely&rsquo;s
+marriage with his daughter Penny, and having hit on a formula by which he could
+justify it, fenced off all doubts and objections, his own included. The formula
+was this: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a man to put my head up an entry before I know
+where it leads.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Little Penny was very proud and fluttering, but hardly so happy as she expected
+to be in an engagement. She wondered if young Towers cared much about it, for
+he had not been to the house lately, and her sister and brothers were rather
+inclined to sneer than to sympathize. Grimworth rang with the news. All men
+extolled Mr. Freely&rsquo;s good fortune; while the women, with the tender
+solicitude characteristic of the sex, wished the marriage might turn out well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While affairs were at this triumphant juncture, Mr. Freely one morning observed
+that a stone-carver who had been breakfasting in the eating-room had left a
+newspaper behind. It was the <i>X-shire Gazette</i>, and X-shire being a county
+not unknown to Mr. Freely, he felt some curiosity to glance over it, and
+especially over the advertisements. A slight flush came over his face as he
+read. It was produced by the following announcement:&mdash;&ldquo;If David
+Faux, son of Jonathan Faux, late of Gilsbrook, will apply at the office of Mr.
+Strutt, attorney, of Rodham, he will hear of something to his advantage.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Father&rsquo;s dead!&rdquo; exclaimed Mr. Freely, involuntarily.
+&ldquo;Can he have left me a legacy?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p>
+Perhaps it was a result quite different from your expectations, that Mr. David
+Faux should have returned from the West Indies only a few years after his
+arrival there, and have set up in his old business, like any plain man who has
+never travelled. But these cases do occur in life. Since, as we know, men
+change their skies and see new constellations without changing their souls, it
+will follow sometimes that they don&rsquo;t change their business under those
+novel circumstances.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Certainly, this result was contrary to David&rsquo;s own expectations. He had
+looked forward, you are aware, to a brilliant career among &ldquo;the
+blacks&rdquo;; but, either because they had already seen too many white men, or
+for some other reason, they did not at once recognize him as a superior order
+of human being; besides, there were no princesses among them. Nobody in Jamaica
+was anxious to maintain David for the mere pleasure of his society; and those
+hidden merits of a man which are so well known to himself were as little
+recognized there as they notoriously are in the effete society of the Old
+World. So that in the dark hints that David threw out at the Oyster Club about
+that life of Sultanic self-indulgence spent by him in the luxurious Indies, I
+really think he was doing himself a wrong; I believe he worked for his bread,
+and, in fact, took to cooking as, after all, the only department in which he
+could offer skilled labour. He had formed several ingenious plans by which he
+meant to circumvent people of large fortune and small faculty; but then he
+never met with exactly the right circumstances. David&rsquo;s devices for
+getting rich without work had apparently no direct relation with the world
+outside him, as his confectionery receipts had. It is possible to pass a great
+many bad half pennies and bad half-crowns, but I believe there has no instance
+been known of passing a halfpenny or a half-crown as a sovereign. A sharper can
+drive a brisk trade in this world: it is undeniable that there may be a fine
+career for him, if he will dare consequences; but David was too timid to be a
+sharper, or venture in any way among the mantraps of the law. He dared rob
+nobody but his mother. And so he had to fall back on the genuine value there
+was in him&mdash;to be content to pass as a good halfpenny, or, to speak more
+accurately, as a good confectioner. For in spite of some additional reading and
+observation, there was nothing else he could make so much money by; nay, he
+found in himself even a capability of extending his skill in this direction,
+and embracing all forms of cookery; while, in other branches of human labour,
+he began to see that it was not possible for him to shine. Fate was too strong
+for him; he had thought to master her inclination and had fled over the seas to
+that end; but she caught him, tied an apron round him, and snatching him from
+all other devices, made him devise cakes and patties in a kitchen at Kingstown.
+He was getting submissive to her, since she paid him with tolerable gains; but
+fevers and prickly heat, and other evils incidental to cooks in ardent
+climates, made him long for his native land; so he took ship once more,
+carrying his six years&rsquo; savings, and seeing distinctly, this time, what
+were Fate&rsquo;s intentions as to his career. If you question me closely as to
+whether all the money with which he set up at Grimworth consisted of pure and
+simple earnings, I am obliged to confess that he got a sum or two for
+charitably abstaining from mentioning some other people&rsquo;s misdemeanours.
+Altogether, since no prospects were attached to his family name, and since a
+new christening seemed a suitable commencement of a new life, Mr. David Faux
+thought it as well to call himself Mr. Edward Freely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But lo! now, in opposition to all calculable probability, some benefit appeared
+to be attached to the name of David Faux. Should he neglect it, as beneath the
+attention of a prosperous tradesman? It might bring him into contact with his
+family again, and he felt no yearnings in that direction: moreover, he had
+small belief that the &ldquo;something to his advantage&rdquo; could be
+anything considerable. On the other hand, even a small gain is pleasant, and
+the promise of it in this instance was so surprising, that David felt his
+curiosity awakened. The scale dipped at last on the side of writing to the
+lawyer, and, to be brief, the correspondence ended in an appointment for a
+meeting between David and his eldest brother at Mr. Strutt&rsquo;s, the vague
+&ldquo;something&rdquo; having been defined as a legacy from his father of
+eighty-two pounds, three shillings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+David, you know, had expected to be disinherited; and so he would have been, if
+he had not, like some other indifferent sons, come of excellent parents, whose
+conscience made them scrupulous where much more highly-instructed people often
+feel themselves warranted in following the bent of their indignation. Good Mrs.
+Faux could never forget that she had brought this ill-conditioned son into the
+world when he was in that entirely helpless state which excluded the smallest
+choice on his part; and, somehow or other, she felt that his going wrong would
+be his father&rsquo;s and mother&rsquo;s fault, if they failed in one tittle of
+their parental duty. Her notion of parental duty was not of a high and subtle
+kind, but it included giving him his due share of the family property; for when
+a man had got a little honest money of his own, was he so likely to steal? To
+cut the delinquent son off with a shilling, was like delivering him over to his
+evil propensities. No; let the sum of twenty guineas which he had stolen be
+deducted from his share, and then let the sum of three guineas be put back from
+it, seeing that his mother had always considered three of the twenty guineas as
+his; and, though he had run away, and was, perhaps, gone across the sea, let
+the money be left to him all the same, and be kept in reserve for his possible
+return. Mr. Faux agreed to his wife&rsquo;s views, and made a codicil to his
+will accordingly, in time to die with a clear conscience. But for some time his
+family thought it likely that David would never reappear; and the eldest son,
+who had the charge of Jacob on his hands, often thought it a little hard that
+David might perhaps be dead, and yet, for want of certitude on that point, his
+legacy could not fall to his legal heir. But in this state of things the
+opposite certitude&mdash;namely, that David was still alive and in
+England&mdash;seemed to be brought by the testimony of a neighbour, who, having
+been on a journey to Cattelton, was pretty sure he had seen David in a gig,
+with a stout man driving by his side. He could &ldquo;swear it was
+David,&rdquo; though he could &ldquo;give no account why, for he had no marks
+on him; but no more had a white dog, and that didn&rsquo;t hinder folks from
+knowing a white dog.&rdquo; It was this incident which had led to the
+advertisement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The legacy was paid, of course, after a few preliminary disclosures as to Mr.
+David&rsquo;s actual position. He begged to send his love to his mother, and to
+say that he hoped to pay her a dutiful visit by and by; but, at present, his
+business and near prospect of marriage made it difficult for him to leave home.
+His brother replied with much frankness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My mother may do as she likes about having you to see her, but, for my
+part, I don&rsquo;t want to catch sight of you on the premises again. When
+folks have taken a new name, they&rsquo;d better keep to their new
+&rsquo;quinetance.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+David pocketed the insult along with the eighty-two pounds three, and travelled
+home again in some triumph at the ease of a transaction which had enriched him
+to this extent. He had no intention of offending his brother by further claims
+on his fraternal recognition, and relapsed with full contentment into the
+character of Mr. Edward Freely, the orphan, scion of a great but reduced
+family, with an eccentric uncle in the West Indies. (I have already hinted that
+he had some acquaintance with imaginative literature; and being of a practical
+turn, he had, you perceive, applied even this form of knowledge to practical
+purposes.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was little more than a week after the return from his fruitful journey, that
+the day of his marriage with Penny having been fixed, it was agreed that Mrs.
+Palfrey should overcome her reluctance to move from home, and that she and her
+husband should bring their two daughters to inspect little Penny&rsquo;s future
+abode and decide on the new arrangements to be made for the reception of the
+bride. Mr. Freely meant her to have a house so pretty and comfortable that she
+need not envy even a wool-factor&rsquo;s wife. Of course, the upper room over
+the shop was to be the best sitting-room; but also the parlour behind the shop
+was to be made a suitable bower for the lovely Penny, who would naturally wish
+to be near her husband, though Mr. Freely declared his resolution never to
+allow <i>his</i> wife to wait in the shop. The decisions about the parlour
+furniture were left till last, because the party was to take tea there; and,
+about five o&rsquo;clock, they were all seated there with the best muffins and
+buttered buns before them, little Penny blushing and smiling, with her
+&ldquo;crop&rdquo; in the best order, and a blue frock showing her little white
+shoulders, while her opinion was being always asked and never given. She
+secretly wished to have a particular sort of chimney ornaments, but she could
+not have brought herself to mention it. Seated by the side of her yellow and
+rather withered lover, who, though he had not reached his thirtieth year, had
+already crow&rsquo;s-feet about his eyes, she was quite tremulous at the
+greatness of her lot in being married to a man who had travelled so
+much&mdash;and before her sister Letty! The handsome Letitia looked rather
+proud and contemptuous, thought her future brother-in-law an odious person, and
+was vexed with her father and mother for letting Penny marry him. Dear little
+Penny! She certainly did look like a fresh white-heart cherry going to be
+bitten off the stem by that lipless mouth. Would no deliverer come to make a
+slip between that cherry and that mouth without a lip?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Quite a family likeness between the admiral and you, Mr. Freely,&rdquo;
+observed Mrs. Palfrey, who was looking at the family portrait for the first
+time. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s wonderful! and only a grand-uncle. Do you feature the
+rest of your family, as you know of?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say,&rdquo; said Mr. Freely, with a sigh. &ldquo;My family
+have mostly thought themselves too high to take any notice of me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this moment an extraordinary disturbance was heard in the shop, as of a
+heavy animal stamping about and making angry noises, and then of a glass vessel
+falling in shivers, while the voice of the apprentice was heard calling
+&ldquo;Master&rdquo; in great alarm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Freely rose in anxious astonishment, and hastened into the shop, followed
+by the four Palfreys, who made a group at the parlour-door, transfixed with
+wonder at seeing a large man in a smock-frock, with a pitchfork in his hand,
+rush up to Mr. Freely and hug him, crying out,&mdash;&ldquo;Zavy, Zavy,
+b&rsquo;other Zavy!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was Jacob, and for some moments David lost all presence of mind. He felt
+arrested for having stolen his mother&rsquo;s guineas. He turned cold, and
+trembled in his brother&rsquo;s grasp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, how&rsquo;s this?&rdquo; said Mr. Palfrey, advancing from the door.
+&ldquo;Who is he?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Jacob supplied the answer by saying over and over again&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;se Zacob, b&rsquo;other Zacob. Come &rsquo;o zee
+Zavy&rdquo;&mdash;till hunger prompted him to relax his grasp, and to seize a
+large raised pie, which he lifted to his mouth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By this time David&rsquo;s power of device had begun to return, but it was a
+very hard task for his prudence to master his rage and hatred towards poor
+Jacob.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who he is; he must be drunk,&rdquo; he said, in a low
+tone to Mr. Palfrey. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s dangerous with that pitchfork.
+He&rsquo;ll never let it go.&rdquo; Then checking himself on the point of
+betraying too great an intimacy with Jacob&rsquo;s habits, he added &ldquo;You
+watch him, while I run for the constable.&rdquo; And he hurried out of the
+shop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, where do you come from, my man?&rdquo; said Mr. Palfrey, speaking
+to Jacob in a conciliatory tone. Jacob was eating his pie by large mouthfuls,
+and looking round at the other good things in the shop, while he embraced his
+pitchfork with his left arm, and laid his left hand on some Bath buns. He was
+in the rare position of a person who recovers a long absent friend and finds
+him richer than ever in the characteristics that won his heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;s Zacob&mdash;b&rsquo;other Zacob&mdash;&rsquo;t home. I love
+Zavy&mdash;b&rsquo;other Zavy,&rdquo; he said, as soon as Mr. Palfrey had drawn
+his attention. &ldquo;Zavy come back from z&rsquo; Indies&mdash;got
+mother&rsquo;s zinnies. Where&rsquo;s Zavy?&rdquo; he added, looking round and
+then turning to the others with a questioning air, puzzled by David&rsquo;s
+disappearance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very odd,&rdquo; observed Mr. Palfrey to his wife and
+daughters. &ldquo;He seems to say Freely&rsquo;s his brother come back from
+th&rsquo; Indies.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What a pleasant relation for us!&rdquo; said Letitia, sarcastically.
+&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s a good deal like Mr. Freely. He&rsquo;s got just the
+same sort of nose, and his eyes are the same colour.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Poor Penny was ready to cry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now Mr. Freely re-entered the shop without the constable. During his walk
+of a few yards he had had time and calmness enough to widen his view of
+consequences, and he saw that to get Jacob taken to the workhouse or to the
+lock-up house as an offensive stranger might have awkward effects if his family
+took the trouble of inquiring after him. He must resign himself to more patient
+measures.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;On second thoughts,&rdquo; he said, beckoning to Mr. Palfrey and
+whispering to him while Jacob&rsquo;s back was turned, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s a poor
+half-witted fellow. Perhaps his friends will come after him. I don&rsquo;t mind
+giving him something to eat, and letting him lie down for the night. He&rsquo;s
+got it into his head that he knows me&mdash;they do get these fancies, idiots
+do. He&rsquo;ll perhaps go away again in an hour or two, and make no more ado.
+I&rsquo;m a kind-hearted man <i>myself</i>&mdash;I shouldn&rsquo;t like to have
+the poor fellow ill-used.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why, he&rsquo;ll eat a sovereign&rsquo;s worth in no time,&rdquo; said
+Mr. Palfrey, thinking Mr. Freely a little too magnificent in his generosity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Eh, Zavy, come back?&rdquo; exclaimed Jacob, giving his dear brother
+another hug, which crushed Mr. Freely&rsquo;s features inconveniently against
+the handle of the pitchfork.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, aye,&rdquo; said Mr. Freely, smiling, with every capability of
+murder in his mind, except the courage to commit it. He wished the Bath buns
+might by chance have arsenic in them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mother&rsquo;s zinnies?&rdquo; said Jacob, pointing to a glass jar of
+yellow lozenges that stood in the window. &ldquo;Zive &rsquo;em me.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+David dared not do otherwise than reach down the glass jar and give Jacob a
+handful. He received them in his smock-frock, which he held out for more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll keep him quiet a bit, at any rate,&rdquo; thought David,
+and emptied the jar. Jacob grinned and mowed with delight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You&rsquo;re very good to this stranger, Mr. Freely,&rdquo; said
+Letitia; and then spitefully, as David joined the party at the parlour-door,
+&ldquo;I think you could hardly treat him better, if he was really your
+brother.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always thought it a duty to be good to idiots,&rdquo; said
+Mr. Freely, striving after the most moral view of the subject. &ldquo;We might
+have been idiots ourselves&mdash;everybody might have been born idiots, instead
+of having their right senses.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where there&rsquo;d ha&rsquo; been victual for us all
+then,&rdquo; observed Mrs. Palfrey, regarding the matter in a housewifely
+light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;But let us sit down again and finish our tea,&rdquo; said Mr. Freely.
+&ldquo;Let us leave the poor creature to himself.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They walked into the parlour again; but Jacob, not apparently appreciating the
+kindness of leaving him to himself, immediately followed his brother, and
+seated himself, pitchfork grounded, at the table.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Miss Letitia, rising, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know
+whether <i>you</i> mean to stay, mother; but I shall go home.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Oh, me too,&rdquo; said Penny, frightened to death at Jacob, who had
+begun to nod and grin at her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Well, I think we <i>had</i> better be going, Mr. Palfrey,&rdquo; said
+the mother, rising more slowly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Freely, whose complexion had become decidedly yellower during the last
+half-hour, did not resist this proposition. He hoped they should meet again
+&ldquo;under happier circumstances.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my belief the man is his brother,&rdquo; said Letitia, when
+they were all on their way home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nonsense!&rdquo; said Mr. Palfrey. &ldquo;Freely&rsquo;s got no
+brother&mdash;he&rsquo;s said so many and many a time; he&rsquo;s an orphan;
+he&rsquo;s got nothing but uncles&mdash;leastwise, one. What&rsquo;s it matter
+what an idiot says? What call had Freely to tell lies?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Letitia tossed her head and was silent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Freely, left alone with his affectionate brother Jacob, brooded over the
+possibility of luring him out of the town early the next morning, and getting
+him conveyed to Gilsbrook without further betrayals. But the thing was
+difficult. He saw clearly that if he took Jacob himself, his absence, conjoined
+with the disappearance of the stranger, would either cause the conviction that
+he was really a relative, or would oblige him to the dangerous course of
+inventing a story to account for his disappearance, and his own absence at the
+same time. David groaned. There come occasions when falsehood is felt to be
+inconvenient. It would, perhaps, have been a longer-headed device, if he had
+never told any of those clever fibs about his uncles, grand and otherwise; for
+the Palfreys were simple people, and shared the popular prejudice against
+lying. Even if he could get Jacob away this time, what security was there that
+he would not come again, having once found the way? O guineas! O lozenges! what
+enviable people those were who had never robbed their mothers, and had never
+told fibs! David spent a sleepless night, while Jacob was snoring close by. Was
+this the upshot of travelling to the Indies, and acquiring experience combined
+with anecdote?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He rose at break of day, as he had once before done when he was in fear of
+Jacob, and took all gentle means to rouse this fatal brother from his deep
+sleep; he dared not be loud, because his apprentice was in the house, and would
+report everything. But Jacob was not to be roused. He fought out with his fist
+at the unknown cause of disturbance, turned over, and snored again. He must be
+left to wake as he would. David, with a cold perspiration on his brow,
+confessed to himself that Jacob could not be got away that day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Palfrey came over to Grimworth before noon, with a natural curiosity to see
+how his future son-in-law got on with the stranger to whom he was so
+benevolently inclined. He found a crowd round the shop. All Grimworth by this
+time had heard how Freely had been fastened on by an idiot, who called him
+&ldquo;Brother Zavy&rdquo;; and the younger population seemed to find the
+singular stranger an unwearying source of fascination, while the householders
+dropped in one by one to inquire into the incident.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you send him to the workhouse?&rdquo; said Mr.
+Prettyman. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll have a row with him and the children presently,
+and he&rsquo;ll eat you up. The workhouse is the proper place for him; let his
+kin claim him, if he&rsquo;s got any.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Those may be <i>your</i> feelings, Mr. Prettyman,&rdquo; said David, his
+mind quite enfeebled by the torture of his position.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What! <i>is</i> he your brother, then?&rdquo; said Mr. Prettyman,
+looking at his neighbour Freely rather sharply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;All men are our brothers, and idiots particular so,&rdquo; said Mr.
+Freely, who, like many other travelled men, was not master of the English
+language.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Come, come, if he&rsquo;s your brother, tell the truth, man,&rdquo; said
+Mr. Prettyman, with growing suspicion. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be ashamed of your
+own flesh and blood.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Palfrey was present, and also had his eye on Freely. It is difficult for a
+man to believe in the advantage of a truth which will disclose him to have been
+a liar. In this critical moment, David shrank from this immediate disgrace in
+the eyes of his future father-in-law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Mr. Prettyman,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I take your observations as an
+insult. I&rsquo;ve no reason to be otherwise than proud of my own flesh and
+blood. If this poor man was my brother more than all men are, I should say
+so.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A tall figure darkened the door, and David, lifting his eyes in that direction,
+saw his eldest brother, Jonathan, on the door-sill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll stay wi&rsquo; Zavy,&rdquo; shouted Jacob, as he, too, caught
+sight of his eldest brother; and, running behind the counter, he clutched David
+hard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What, he <i>is</i> here?&rdquo; said Jonathan Faux, coming forward.
+&ldquo;My mother would have no nay, as he&rsquo;d been away so long, but I must
+see after him. And it struck me he was very like come after you, because
+we&rsquo;d been talking of you o&rsquo; late, and where you lived.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+David saw there was no escape; he smiled a ghastly smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;What! is this a relation of yours, sir?&rdquo; said Mr. Palfrey to
+Jonathan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Aye, it&rsquo;s my innicent of a brother, sure enough,&rdquo; said
+honest Jonathan. &ldquo;A fine trouble and cost he is to us, in th&rsquo;
+eating and other things, but we must bear what&rsquo;s laid on us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And your name&rsquo;s Freely, is it?&rdquo; said Mr. Prettyman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Nay, nay, my name&rsquo;s Faux, I know nothing o&rsquo; Freelys,&rdquo;
+said Jonathan, curtly. &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; he added, turning to David, &ldquo;I
+must take some news to mother about Jacob. Shall I take him with me, or will
+you undertake to send him back?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Take him, if you can make him loose his hold of me,&rdquo; said David,
+feebly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Is this gentleman here in the confectionery line your brother, then,
+sir?&rdquo; said Mr. Prettyman, feeling that it was an occasion on which formal
+language must be used.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;<i>I</i> don&rsquo;t want to own him,&rdquo; said Jonathan, unable to
+resist a movement of indignation that had never been allowed to satisfy itself.
+&ldquo;He ran away from home with good reasons in his pocket years ago: he
+didn&rsquo;t want to be owned again, I reckon.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Palfrey left the shop; he felt his own pride too severely wounded by the
+sense that he had let himself be fooled, to feel curiosity for further details.
+The most pressing business was to go home and tell his daughter that Freely was
+a poor sneak, probably a rascal, and that her engagement was broken off.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Prettyman stayed, with some internal self-gratulation that <i>he</i> had
+never given in to Freely, and that Mr. Chaloner would see now what sort of
+fellow it was that he had put over the heads of older parishioners. He
+considered it due from him (Mr. Prettyman) that, for the interests of the
+parish, he should know all that was to be known about this
+&ldquo;interloper.&rdquo; Grimworth would have people coming from Botany Bay to
+settle in it, if things went on in this way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It soon appeared that Jacob could not be made to quit his dear brother David
+except by force. He understood, with a clearness equal to that of the most
+intelligent mind, that Jonathan would take him back to skimmed milk,
+apple-dumpling, broad beans, and pork. And he had found a paradise in his
+brother&rsquo;s shop. It was a difficult matter to use force with Jacob, for he
+wore heavy nailed boots; and if his pitchfork had been mastered, he would have
+resorted without hesitation to kicks. Nothing short of using guile to bind him
+hand and foot would have made all parties safe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Let him stay,&rdquo; said David, with desperate resignation, frightened
+above all things at the idea of further disturbances in his shop, which would
+make his exposure all the more conspicuous. &ldquo;<i>You</i> go away again,
+and to-morrow I can, perhaps, get him to go to Gilsbrook with me. He&rsquo;ll
+follow me fast enough, I daresay,&rdquo; he added, with a half-groan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said Jonathan, gruffly. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see why
+<i>you</i> shouldn&rsquo;t have some trouble and expense with him as well as
+the rest of us. But mind you bring him back safe and soon, else mother&rsquo;ll
+never rest.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On this arrangement being concluded, Mr. Prettyman begged Mr. Jonathan Faux to
+go and take a snack with him, an invitation which was quite acceptable; and as
+honest Jonathan had nothing to be ashamed of, it is probable that he was very
+frank in his communications to the civil draper, who, pursuing the benefit of
+the parish, hastened to make all the information he could gather about Freely
+common parochial property. You may imagine that the meeting of the Club at the
+Woolpack that evening was unusually lively. Every member was anxious to prove
+that he had never liked Freely, as he called himself. Faux was his name, was
+it? Fox would have been more suitable. The majority expressed a desire to see
+him hooted out of the town.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Freely did not venture over his door-sill that day, for he knew Jacob would
+keep at his side, and there was every probability that they would have a train
+of juvenile followers. He sent to engage the Woolpack gig for an early hour the
+next morning; but this order was not kept religiously a secret by the landlord.
+Mr. Freely was informed that he could not have the gig till seven; and the
+Grimworth people were early risers. Perhaps they were more alert than usual on
+this particular morning; for when Jacob, with a bag of sweets in his hand, was
+induced to mount the gig with his brother David, the inhabitants of the
+market-place were looking out of their doors and windows, and at the turning of
+the street there was even a muster of apprentices and schoolboys, who shouted
+as they passed in what Jacob took to be a very merry and friendly way, nodding
+and grinning in return. &ldquo;Huzzay, David Faux! how&rsquo;s your
+uncle?&rdquo; was their morning&rsquo;s greeting. Like other pointed things, it
+was not altogether impromptu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even this public derision was not so crushing to David as the horrible thought
+that though he might succeed now in getting Jacob home again there would never
+be any security against his coming back, like a wasp to the honey-pot. As long
+as David lived at Grimworth, Jacob&rsquo;s return would be hanging over him.
+But could he go on living at Grimworth&mdash;an object of ridicule, discarded
+by the Palfreys, after having revelled in the consciousness that he was an
+envied and prosperous confectioner? David liked to be envied; he minded less
+about being loved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His doubts on this point were soon settled. The mind of Grimworth became
+obstinately set against him and his viands, and the new school being finished,
+the eating-room was closed. If there had been no other reason, sympathy with
+the Palfreys, that respectable family who had lived in the parish time out of
+mind, would have determined all well-to-do people to decline Freely&rsquo;s
+goods. Besides, he had absconded with his mother&rsquo;s guineas: who knew what
+else he had done, in Jamaica or elsewhere, before he came to Grimworth, worming
+himself into families under false pretences? Females shuddered. Dreadful
+suspicions gathered round him: his green eyes, his bow-legs had a criminal
+aspect. The rector disliked the sight of a man who had imposed upon him; and
+all boys who could not afford to purchase, hooted &ldquo;David Faux&rdquo; as
+they passed his shop. Certainly no man now would pay anything for the
+&ldquo;goodwill&rdquo; of Mr. Freely&rsquo;s business, and he would be obliged
+to quit it without a peculium so desirable towards defraying the expense of
+moving.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a few months the shop in the market-place was again to let, and Mr. David
+Faux, <i>alias</i> Mr. Edward Freely, had gone&mdash;nobody at Grimworth knew
+whither. In this way the demoralization of Grimworth women was checked. Young
+Mrs. Steene renewed her efforts to make light mince-pies, and having at last
+made a batch so excellent that Mr. Steene looked at her with complacency as he
+ate them, and said they were the best he had ever eaten in his life, she
+thought less of bulbuls and renegades ever after. The secrets of the finer
+cookery were revived in the breasts of matronly house-wives, and daughters were
+again anxious to be initiated in them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+You will further, I hope, be glad to hear, that some purchases of drapery made
+by pretty Penny, in preparation for her marriage with Mr. Freely, came in quite
+as well for her wedding with young Towers as if they had been made expressly
+for the latter occasion. For Penny&rsquo;s complexion had not altered, and blue
+always became it best.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here ends the story of Mr. David Faux, confectioner, and his brother Jacob. And
+we see in it, I think, an admirable instance of the unexpected forms in which
+the great Nemesis hides herself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1860)
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER JACOB ***</div>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Brother Jacob, by George Eliot
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Brother Jacob
+
+
+Author: George Eliot
+
+Release Date: April 20, 2005  [eBook #2171]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER JACOB***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1921 Oxford University Press edition by David Price,
+email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+
+BROTHER JACOB
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that of
+blindly taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been
+sufficiently considered.  How is the son of a British yeoman, who has
+been fed principally on salt pork and yeast dumplings, to know that there
+is satiety for the human stomach even in a paradise of glass jars full of
+sugared almonds and pink lozenges, and that the tedium of life can reach
+a pitch where plum-buns at discretion cease to offer the slightest
+excitement?  Or how, at the tender age when a confectioner seems to him a
+very prince whom all the world must envy--who breakfasts on macaroons,
+dines on meringues, sups on twelfth-cake, and fills up the intermediate
+hours with sugar-candy or peppermint--how is he to foresee the day of sad
+wisdom, when he will discern that the confectioner's calling is not
+socially influential, or favourable to a soaring ambition?  I have known
+a man who turned out to have a metaphysical genius, incautiously, in the
+period of youthful buoyancy, commence his career as a dancing-master; and
+you may imagine the use that was made of this initial mistake by
+opponents who felt themselves bound to warn the public against his
+doctrine of the Inconceivable.  He could not give up his dancing-lessons,
+because he made his bread by them, and metaphysics would not have found
+him in so much as salt to his bread.  It was really the same with Mr.
+David Faux and the confectionery business.  His uncle, the butler at the
+great house close by Brigford, had made a pet of him in his early
+boyhood, and it was on a visit to this uncle that the confectioners'
+shops in that brilliant town had, on a single day, fired his tender
+imagination.  He carried home the pleasing illusion that a confectioner
+must be at once the happiest and the foremost of men, since the things he
+made were not only the most beautiful to behold, but the very best
+eating, and such as the Lord Mayor must always order largely for his
+private recreation; so that when his father declared he must be put to a
+trade, David chose his line without a moment's hesitation; and, with a
+rashness inspired by a sweet tooth, wedded himself irrevocably to
+confectionery.  Soon, however, the tooth lost its relish and fell into
+blank indifference; and all the while, his mind expanded, his ambition
+took new shapes, which could hardly be satisfied within the sphere his
+youthful ardour had chosen.  But what was he to do?  He was a young man
+of much mental activity, and, above all, gifted with a spirit of
+contrivance; but then, his faculties would not tell with great effect in
+any other medium than that of candied sugars, conserves, and pastry.  Say
+what you will about the identity of the reasoning process in all branches
+of thought, or about the advantage of coming to subjects with a fresh
+mind, the adjustment of butter to flour, and of heat to pastry, is _not_
+the best preparation for the office of prime minister; besides, in the
+present imperfectly-organized state of society, there are social
+barriers.  David could invent delightful things in the way of drop-cakes,
+and he had the widest views of the sugar department; but in other
+directions he certainly felt hampered by the want of knowledge and
+practical skill; and the world is so inconveniently constituted, that the
+vague consciousness of being a fine fellow is no guarantee of success in
+any line of business.
+
+This difficulty pressed with some severity on Mr. David Faux, even before
+his apprenticeship was ended.  His soul swelled with an impatient sense
+that he ought to become something very remarkable--that it was quite out
+of the question for him to put up with a narrow lot as other men did: he
+scorned the idea that he could accept an average.  He was sure there was
+nothing average about him: even such a person as Mrs. Tibbits, the washer-
+woman, perceived it, and probably had a preference for his linen.  At
+that particular period he was weighing out gingerbread nuts; but such an
+anomaly could not continue.  No position could be suited to Mr. David
+Faux that was not in the highest degree easy to the flesh and flattering
+to the spirit.  If he had fallen on the present times, and enjoyed the
+advantages of a Mechanic's Institute, he would certainly have taken to
+literature and have written reviews; but his education had not been
+liberal.  He had read some novels from the adjoining circulating library,
+and had even bought the story of _Inkle and Yarico_, which had made him
+feel very sorry for poor Mr. Inkle; so that his ideas might not have been
+below a certain mark of the literary calling; but his spelling and
+diction were too unconventional.
+
+When a man is not adequately appreciated or comfortably placed in his own
+country, his thoughts naturally turn towards foreign climes; and David's
+imagination circled round and round the utmost limits of his geographical
+knowledge, in search of a country where a young gentleman of pasty
+visage, lipless mouth, and stumpy hair, would be likely to be received
+with the hospitable enthusiasm which he had a right to expect.  Having a
+general idea of America as a country where the population was chiefly
+black, it appeared to him the most propitious destination for an emigrant
+who, to begin with, had the broad and easily recognizable merit of
+whiteness; and this idea gradually took such strong possession of him
+that Satan seized the opportunity of suggesting to him that he might
+emigrate under easier circumstances, if he supplied himself with a little
+money from his master's till.  But that evil spirit, whose understanding,
+I am convinced, has been much overrated, quite wasted his time on this
+occasion.  David would certainly have liked well to have some of his
+master's money in his pocket, if he had been sure his master would have
+been the only man to suffer for it; but he was a cautious youth, and
+quite determined to run no risks on his own account.  So he stayed out
+his apprenticeship, and committed no act of dishonesty that was at all
+likely to be discovered, reserving his plan of emigration for a future
+opportunity.  And the circumstances under which he carried it out were in
+this wise.  Having been at home a week or two partaking of the family
+beans, he had used his leisure in ascertaining a fact which was of
+considerable importance to him, namely, that his mother had a small sum
+in guineas painfully saved from her maiden perquisites, and kept in the
+corner of a drawer where her baby-linen had reposed for the last twenty
+years--ever since her son David had taken to his feet, with a slight
+promise of bow-legs which had not been altogether unfulfilled.  Mr. Faux,
+senior, had told his son very frankly, that he must not look to being set
+up in business by _him_: with seven sons, and one of them a very healthy
+and well-developed idiot, who consumed a dumpling about eight inches in
+diameter every day, it was pretty well if they got a hundred apiece at
+his death.  Under these circumstances, what was David to do?  It was
+certainly hard that he should take his mother's money; but he saw no
+other ready means of getting any, and it was not to be expected that a
+young man of his merit should put up with inconveniences that could be
+avoided.  Besides, it is not robbery to take property belonging to your
+mother: she doesn't prosecute you.  And David was very well behaved to
+his mother; he comforted her by speaking highly of himself to her, and
+assuring her that he never fell into the vices he saw practised by other
+youths of his own age, and that he was particularly fond of honesty.  If
+his mother would have given him her twenty guineas as a reward of this
+noble disposition, he really would not have stolen them from her, and it
+would have been more agreeable to his feelings.  Nevertheless, to an
+active mind like David's, ingenuity is not without its pleasures: it was
+rather an interesting occupation to become stealthily acquainted with the
+wards of his mother's simple key (not in the least like Chubb's patent),
+and to get one that would do its work equally well; and also to arrange a
+little drama by which he would escape suspicion, and run no risk of
+forfeiting the prospective hundred at his father's death, which would be
+convenient in the improbable case of his _not_ making a large fortune in
+the "Indies."
+
+First, he spoke freely of his intention to start shortly for Liverpool
+and take ship for America; a resolution which cost his good mother some
+pain, for, after Jacob the idiot, there was not one of her sons to whom
+her heart clung more than to her youngest-born, David.  Next, it appeared
+to him that Sunday afternoon, when everybody was gone to church except
+Jacob and the cowboy, was so singularly favourable an opportunity for
+sons who wanted to appropriate their mothers' guineas, that he half
+thought it must have been kindly intended by Providence for such
+purposes.  Especially the third Sunday in Lent; because Jacob had been
+out on one of his occasional wanderings for the last two days; and David,
+being a timid young man, had a considerable dread and hatred of Jacob, as
+of a large personage who went about habitually with a pitchfork in his
+hand.
+
+Nothing could be easier, then, than for David on this Sunday afternoon to
+decline going to church, on the ground that he was going to tea at Mr.
+Lunn's, whose pretty daughter Sally had been an early flame of his, and,
+when the church-goers were at a safe distance, to abstract the guineas
+from their wooden box and slip them into a small canvas bag--nothing
+easier than to call to the cowboy that he was going, and tell him to keep
+an eye on the house for fear of Sunday tramps.  David thought it would be
+easy, too, to get to a small thicket and bury his bag in a hole he had
+already made and covered up under the roots of an old hollow ash, and he
+had, in fact, found the hole without a moment's difficulty, had uncovered
+it, and was about gently to drop the bag into it, when the sound of a
+large body rustling towards him with something like a bellow was such a
+surprise to David, who, as a gentleman gifted with much contrivance, was
+naturally only prepared for what he expected, that instead of dropping
+the bag gently he let it fall so as to make it untwist and vomit forth
+the shining guineas.  In the same moment he looked up and saw his dear
+brother Jacob close upon him, holding the pitchfork so that the bright
+smooth prongs were a yard in advance of his own body, and about a foot
+off David's.  (A learned friend, to whom I once narrated this history,
+observed that it was David's guilt which made these prongs formidable,
+and that the "mens nil conscia sibi" strips a pitchfork of all terrors.  I
+thought this idea so valuable, that I obtained his leave to use it on
+condition of suppressing his name.)  Nevertheless, David did not entirely
+lose his presence of mind; for in that case he would have sunk on the
+earth or started backward; whereas he kept his ground and smiled at
+Jacob, who nodded his head up and down, and said, "Hoich, Zavy!" in a
+painfully equivocal manner.  David's heart was beating audibly, and if he
+had had any lips they would have been pale; but his mental activity,
+instead of being paralysed, was stimulated.  While he was inwardly
+praying (he always prayed when he was much frightened)--"Oh, save me this
+once, and I'll never get into danger again!"--he was thrusting his hand
+into his pocket in search of a box of yellow lozenges, which he had
+brought with him from Brigford among other delicacies of the same
+portable kind, as a means of conciliating proud beauty, and more
+particularly the beauty of Miss Sarah Lunn.  Not one of these delicacies
+had he ever offered to poor Jacob, for David was not a young man to waste
+his jujubes and barley-sugar in giving pleasure to people from whom he
+expected nothing.  But an idiot with equivocal intentions and a pitchfork
+is as well worth flattering and cajoling as if he were Louis Napoleon.  So
+David, with a promptitude equal to the occasion, drew out his box of
+yellow lozenges, lifted the lid, and performed a pantomime with his mouth
+and fingers, which was meant to imply that he was delighted to see his
+dear brother Jacob, and seized the opportunity of making him a small
+present, which he would find particularly agreeable to the taste.  Jacob,
+you understand, was not an intense idiot, but within a certain limited
+range knew how to choose the good and reject the evil: he took one
+lozenge, by way of test, and sucked it as if he had been a philosopher;
+then, in as great an ecstacy at its new and complex savour as Caliban at
+the taste of Trinculo's wine, chuckled and stroked this suddenly
+beneficent brother, and held out his hand for more; for, except in fits
+of anger, Jacob was not ferocious or needlessly predatory.  David's
+courage half returned, and he left off praying; pouring a dozen lozenges
+into Jacob's palm, and trying to look very fond of him.  He congratulated
+himself that he had formed the plan of going to see Miss Sally Lunn this
+afternoon, and that, as a consequence, he had brought with him these
+propitiatory delicacies: he was certainly a lucky fellow; indeed, it was
+always likely Providence should be fonder of him than of other
+apprentices, and since he _was_ to be interrupted, why, an idiot was
+preferable to any other sort of witness.  For the first time in his life,
+David thought he saw the advantage of idiots.
+
+As for Jacob, he had thrust his pitchfork into the ground, and had thrown
+himself down beside it, in thorough abandonment to the unprecedented
+pleasure of having five lozenges in his mouth at once, blinking
+meanwhile, and making inarticulate sounds of gustative content.  He had
+not yet given any sign of noticing the guineas, but in seating himself he
+had laid his broad right hand on them, and unconsciously kept it in that
+position, absorbed in the sensations of his palate.  If he could only be
+kept so occupied with the lozenges as not to see the guineas before David
+could manage to cover them!  That was David's best hope of safety; for
+Jacob knew his mother's guineas; it had been part of their common
+experience as boys to be allowed to look at these handsome coins, and
+rattle them in their box on high days and holidays, and among all Jacob's
+narrow experiences as to money, this was likely to be the most memorable.
+
+"Here, Jacob," said David, in an insinuating tone, handing the box to
+him, "I'll give 'em all to you.  Run!--make haste!--else somebody'll come
+and take 'em."
+
+David, not having studied the psychology of idiots, was not aware that
+they are not to be wrought upon by imaginative fears.  Jacob took the box
+with his left hand, but saw no necessity for running away.  Was ever a
+promising young man wishing to lay the foundation of his fortune by
+appropriating his mother's guineas obstructed by such a day-mare as this?
+But the moment must come when Jacob would move his right hand to draw off
+the lid of the tin box, and then David would sweep the guineas into the
+hole with the utmost address and swiftness, and immediately seat himself
+upon them.  Ah, no!  It's of no use to have foresight when you are
+dealing with an idiot: he is not to be calculated upon.  Jacob's right
+hand was given to vague clutching and throwing; it suddenly clutched the
+guineas as if they had been so many pebbles, and was raised in an
+attitude which promised to scatter them like seed over a distant bramble,
+when, from some prompting or other--probably of an unwonted sensation--it
+paused, descended to Jacob's knee, and opened slowly under the inspection
+of Jacob's dull eyes.  David began to pray again, but immediately
+desisted--another resource having occurred to him.
+
+"Mother! zinnies!" exclaimed the innocent Jacob.  Then, looking at David,
+he said, interrogatively, "Box?"
+
+"Hush! hush!" said David, summoning all his ingenuity in this severe
+strait.  "See, Jacob!"  He took the tin box from his brother's hand, and
+emptied it of the lozenges, returning half of them to Jacob, but secretly
+keeping the rest in his own hand.  Then he held out the empty box, and
+said, "Here's the box, Jacob!  The box for the guineas!" gently sweeping
+them from Jacob's palm into the box.
+
+This procedure was not objectionable to Jacob; on the contrary, the
+guineas clinked so pleasantly as they fell, that he wished for a
+repetition of the sound, and seizing the box, began to rattle it very
+gleefully.  David, seizing the opportunity, deposited his reserve of
+lozenges in the ground and hastily swept some earth over them.  "Look,
+Jacob!" he said, at last.  Jacob paused from his clinking, and looked
+into the hole, while David began to scratch away the earth, as if in
+doubtful expectation.  When the lozenges were laid bare, he took them out
+one by one, and gave them to Jacob.  "Hush!" he said, in a loud whisper,
+"Tell nobody--all for Jacob--hush--sh--sh!  Put guineas in the
+hole--they'll come out like this!"  To make the lesson more complete, he
+took a guinea, and lowering it into the hole, said, "Put in _so_."  Then,
+as he took the last lozenge out, he said, "Come out _so_," and put the
+lozenge into Jacob's hospitable mouth.
+
+Jacob turned his head on one side, looked first at his brother and then
+at the hole, like a reflective monkey, and, finally, laid the box of
+guineas in the hole with much decision.  David made haste to add every
+one of the stray coins, put on the lid, and covered it well with earth,
+saying in his meet coaxing tone--
+
+"Take 'm out to-morrow, Jacob; all for Jacob!  Hush--sh--sh!"
+
+Jacob, to whom this once indifferent brother had all at once become a
+sort of sweet-tasted fetish, stroked David's best coat with his adhesive
+fingers, and then hugged him with an accompaniment of that mingled
+chuckling and gurgling by which he was accustomed to express the milder
+passions.  But if he had chosen to bite a small morsel out of his
+beneficent brother's cheek, David would have been obliged to bear it.
+
+And here I must pause, to point out to you the short-sightedness of human
+contrivance.  This ingenious young man, Mr. David Faux, thought he had
+achieved a triumph of cunning when he had associated himself in his
+brother's rudimentary mind with the flavour of yellow lozenges.  But he
+had yet to learn that it is a dreadful thing to make an idiot fond of
+you, when you yourself are not of an affectionate disposition: especially
+an idiot with a pitchfork--obviously a difficult friend to shake off by
+rough usage.
+
+It may seem to you rather a blundering contrivance for a clever young man
+to bury the guineas.  But, if everything had turned out as David had
+calculated, you would have seen that his plan was worthy of his talents.
+The guineas would have lain safely in the earth while the theft was
+discovered, and David, with the calm of conscious innocence, would have
+lingered at home, reluctant to say good-bye to his dear mother while she
+was in grief about her guineas; till at length, on the eve of his
+departure, he would have disinterred them in the strictest privacy, and
+carried them on his own person without inconvenience.  But David, you
+perceive, had reckoned without his host, or, to speak more precisely,
+without his idiot brother--an item of so uncertain and fluctuating a
+character, that I doubt whether he would not have puzzled the astute
+heroes of M. de Balzac, whose foresight is so remarkably at home in the
+future.
+
+It was clear to David now that he had only one alternative before him: he
+must either renounce the guineas, by quietly putting them back in his
+mother's drawer (a course not unattended with difficulty); or he must
+leave more than a suspicion behind him, by departing early the next
+morning without giving notice, and with the guineas in his pocket.  For
+if he gave notice that he was going, his mother, he knew, would insist on
+fetching from her box of guineas the three she had always promised him as
+his share; indeed, in his original plan, he had counted on this as a
+means by which the theft would be discovered under circumstances that
+would themselves speak for his innocence; but now, as I need hardly
+explain, that well-combined plan was completely frustrated.  Even if
+David could have bribed Jacob with perpetual lozenges, an idiot's secrecy
+is itself betrayal.  He dared not even go to tea at Mr. Lunn's, for in
+that case he would have lost sight of Jacob, who, in his impatience for
+the crop of lozenges, might scratch up the box again while he was absent,
+and carry it home--depriving him at once of reputation and guineas.  No!
+he must think of nothing all the rest of this day, but of coaxing Jacob
+and keeping him out of mischief.  It was a fatiguing and anxious evening
+to David; nevertheless, he dared not go to sleep without tying a piece of
+string to his thumb and great toe, to secure his frequent waking; for he
+meant to be up with the first peep of dawn, and be far out of reach
+before breakfast-time.  His father, he thought, would certainly cut him
+off with a shilling; but what then?  Such a striking young man as he
+would be sure to be well received in the West Indies: in foreign
+countries there are always openings--even for cats.  It was probable that
+some Princess Yarico would want him to marry her, and make him presents
+of very large jewels beforehand; after which, he needn't marry her unless
+he liked.  David had made up his mind not to steal any more, even from
+people who were fond of him: it was an unpleasant way of making your
+fortune in a world where you were likely to surprised in the act by
+brothers.  Such alarms did not agree with David's constitution, and he
+had felt so much nausea this evening that no doubt his liver was
+affected.  Besides, he would have been greatly hurt not to be thought
+well of in the world: he always meant to make a figure, and be thought
+worthy of the best seats and the best morsels.
+
+Ruminating to this effect on the brilliant future in reserve for him,
+David by the help of his check-string kept himself on the alert to seize
+the time of earliest dawn for his rising and departure.  His brothers, of
+course, were early risers, but he should anticipate them by at least an
+hour and a half, and the little room which he had to himself as only an
+occasional visitor, had its window over the horse-block, so that he could
+slip out through the window without the least difficulty.  Jacob, the
+horrible Jacob, had an awkward trick of getting up before everybody else,
+to stem his hunger by emptying the milk-bowl that was "duly set" for him;
+but of late he had taken to sleeping in the hay-loft, and if he came into
+the house, it would be on the opposite side to that from which David was
+making his exit.  There was no need to think of Jacob; yet David was
+liberal enough to bestow a curse on him--it was the only thing he ever
+did bestow gratuitously.  His small bundle of clothes was ready packed,
+and he was soon treading lightly on the steps of the horse-block, soon
+walking at a smart pace across the fields towards the thicket.  It would
+take him no more than two minutes to get out the box; he could make out
+the tree it was under by the pale strip where the bark was off, although
+the dawning light was rather dimmer in the thicket.  But what, in the
+name of--burnt pastry--was that large body with a staff planted beside
+it, close at the foot of the ash-tree?  David paused, not to make up his
+mind as to the nature of the apparition--he had not the happiness of
+doubting for a moment that the staff was Jacob's pitchfork--but to gather
+the self-command necessary for addressing his brother with a sufficiently
+honeyed accent.  Jacob was absorbed in scratching up the earth, and had
+not heard David's approach.
+
+"I say, Jacob," said David in a loud whisper, just as the tin box was
+lifted out of the hole.
+
+Jacob looked up, and discerning his sweet-flavoured brother, nodded and
+grinned in the dim light in a way that made him seem to David like a
+triumphant demon.  If he had been of an impetuous disposition, he would
+have snatched the pitchfork from the ground and impaled this fraternal
+demon.  But David was by no means impetuous; he was a young man greatly
+given to calculate consequences, a habit which has been held to be the
+foundation of virtue.  But somehow it had not precisely that effect in
+David: he calculated whether an action would harm himself, or whether it
+would only harm other people.  In the former case he was very timid about
+satisfying his immediate desires, but in the latter he would risk the
+result with much courage.
+
+"Give it me, Jacob," he said, stooping down and patting his brother.  "Let
+us see."
+
+Jacob, finding the lid rather tight, gave the box to his brother in
+perfect faith.  David raised the lids and shook his head, while Jacob put
+his finger in and took out a guinea to taste whether the metamorphosis
+into lozenges was complete and satisfactory.
+
+"No, Jacob; too soon, too soon," said David, when the guinea had been
+tasted.  "Give it me; we'll go and bury it somewhere else; we'll put it
+in yonder," he added, pointing vaguely toward the distance.
+
+David screwed on the lid, while Jacob, looking grave, rose and grasped
+his pitchfork.  Then, seeing David's bundle, he snatched it, like a too
+officious Newfoundland, stuck his pitchfork into it and carried it over
+his shoulder in triumph as he accompanied David and the box out of the
+thicket.
+
+What on earth was David to do?  It would have been easy to frown at
+Jacob, and kick him, and order him to get away; but David dared as soon
+have kicked the bull.  Jacob was quiet as long as he was treated
+indulgently; but on the slightest show of anger, he became unmanageable,
+and was liable to fits of fury which would have made him formidable even
+without his pitchfork.  There was no mastery to be obtained over him
+except by kindness or guile.  David tried guile.
+
+"Go, Jacob," he said, when they were out of the thicket--pointing towards
+the house as he spoke; "go and fetch me a spade--a spade.  But give _me_
+the bundle," he added, trying to reach it from the fork, where it hung
+high above Jacob's tall shoulder.
+
+But Jacob showed as much alacrity in obeying as a wasp shows in leaving a
+sugar-basin.  Near David, he felt himself in the vicinity of lozenges: he
+chuckled and rubbed his brother's back, brandishing the bundle higher out
+of reach.  David, with an inward groan, changed his tactics, and walked
+on as fast as he could.  It was not safe to linger.  Jacob would get
+tired of following him, or, at all events, could be eluded.  If they
+could once get to the distant highroad, a coach would overtake them,
+David would mount it, having previously by some ingenious means secured
+his bundle, and then Jacob might howl and flourish his pitchfork as much
+as he liked.  Meanwhile he was under the fatal necessity of being very
+kind to this ogre, and of providing a large breakfast for him when they
+stopped at a roadside inn.  It was already three hours since they had
+started, and David was tired.  Would no coach be coming up soon? he
+inquired.  No coach for the next two hours.  But there was a carrier's
+cart to come immediately, on its way to the next town.  If he could slip
+out, even leaving his bundle behind, and get into the cart without Jacob!
+But there was a new obstacle.  Jacob had recently discovered a remnant of
+sugar-candy in one of his brother's tail-pockets; and, since then, had
+cautiously kept his hold on that limb of the garment, perhaps with an
+expectation that there would be a further development of sugar-candy
+after a longer or shorter interval.  Now every one who has worn a coat
+will understand the sensibilities that must keep a man from starting away
+in a hurry when there is a grasp on his coat-tail.  David looked forward
+to being well received among strangers, but it might make a difference if
+he had only one tail to his coat.
+
+He felt himself in a cold perspiration.  He could walk no more: he must
+get into the cart and let Jacob get in with him.  Presently a cheering
+idea occurred to him: after so large a breakfast, Jacob would be sure to
+go to sleep in the cart; you see at once that David meant to seize his
+bundle, jump out, and be free.  His expectation was partly fulfilled:
+Jacob did go to sleep in the cart, but it was in a peculiar attitude--it
+was with his arms tightly fastened round his dear brother's body; and if
+ever David attempted to move, the grasp tightened with the force of an
+affectionate boa-constrictor.
+
+"Th' innicent's fond on you," observed the carrier, thinking that David
+was probably an amiable brother, and wishing to pay him a compliment.
+
+David groaned.  The ways of thieving were not ways of pleasantness.  Oh,
+why had he an idiot brother?  Oh, why, in general, was the world so
+constituted that a man could not take his mother's guineas comfortably?
+David became grimly speculative.
+
+Copious dinner at noon for Jacob; but little dinner, because little
+appetite, for David.  Instead of eating, he plied Jacob with beer; for
+through this liberality he descried a hope.  Jacob fell into a dead
+sleep, at last, without having his arms round David, who paid the
+reckoning, took his bundle, and walked off.  In another half-hour he was
+on the coach on his way to Liverpool, smiling the smile of the triumphant
+wicked.  He was rid of Jacob--he was bound for the Indies, where a
+gullible princess awaited him.  He would never steal any more, but there
+would be no need; he would show himself so deserving, that people would
+make him presents freely.  He must give up the notion of his father's
+legacy; but it was not likely he would ever want that trifle; and even if
+he did--why, it was a compensation to think that in being for ever
+divided from his family he was divided from Jacob, more terrible than
+Gorgon or Demogorgon to David's timid green eyes.  Thank heaven, he
+should never see Jacob any more!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was nearly six years after the departure of Mr. David Faux for the
+West Indies, that the vacant shop in the market-place at Grimworth was
+understood to have been let to the stranger with a sallow complexion and
+a buff cravat, whose first appearance had caused some excitement in the
+bar of the Woolpack, where he had called to wait for the coach.
+
+Grimworth, to a discerning eye, was a good place to set up shopkeeping
+in.  There was no competition in it at present; the Church-people had
+their own grocer and draper; the Dissenters had theirs; and the two or
+three butchers found a ready market for their joints without strict
+reference to religious persuasion--except that the rector's wife had
+given a general order for the veal sweet-breads and the mutton kidneys,
+while Mr. Rodd, the Baptist minister, had requested that, so far as was
+compatible with the fair accommodation of other customers, the sheep's
+trotters might be reserved for him.  And it was likely to be a growing
+place, for the trustees of Mr. Zephaniah Crypt's Charity, under the
+stimulus of a late visitation by commissioners, were beginning to apply
+long-accumulating funds to the rebuilding of the Yellow Coat School,
+which was henceforth to be carried forward on a greatly-extended scale,
+the testator having left no restrictions concerning the curriculum, but
+only concerning the coat.
+
+The shopkeepers at Grimworth were by no means unanimous as to the
+advantages promised by this prospect of increased population and trading,
+being substantial men, who liked doing a quiet business in which they
+were sure of their customers, and could calculate their returns to a
+nicety.  Hitherto, it had been held a point of honour by the families in
+Grimworth parish, to buy their sugar and their flannel at the shop where
+their fathers and mothers had bought before them; but, if newcomers were
+to bring in the system of neck-and-neck trading, and solicit feminine
+eyes by gown-pieces laid in fan-like folds, and surmounted by artificial
+flowers, giving them a factitious charm (for on what human figure would a
+gown sit like a fan, or what female head was like a bunch of
+China-asters?), or, if new grocers were to fill their windows with
+mountains of currants and sugar, made seductive by contrast and
+tickets,--what security was there for Grimworth, that a vagrant spirit in
+shopping, once introduced, would not in the end carry the most important
+families to the larger market town of Cattleton, where, business being
+done on a system of small profits and quick returns, the fashions were of
+the freshest, and goods of all kinds might be bought at an advantage?
+
+With this view of the times predominant among the tradespeople at
+Grimworth, their uncertainty concerning the nature of the business which
+the sallow-complexioned stranger was about to set up in the vacant shop,
+naturally gave some additional strength to the fears of the less
+sanguine.  If he was going to sell drapery, it was probable that a pale-
+faced fellow like that would deal in showy and inferior articles--printed
+cottons and muslins which would leave their dye in the wash-tub, jobbed
+linen full of knots, and flannel that would soon look like gauze.  If
+grocery, then it was to be hoped that no mother of a family would trust
+the teas of an untried grocer.  Such things had been known in some
+parishes as tradesmen going about canvassing for custom with cards in
+their pockets: when people came from nobody knew where, there was no
+knowing what they might do.  It was a thousand pities that Mr. Moffat,
+the auctioneer and broker, had died without leaving anybody to follow him
+in the business, and Mrs. Cleve's trustee ought to have known better than
+to let a shop to a stranger.  Even the discovery that ovens were being
+put up on the premises, and that the shop was, in fact, being fitted up
+for a confectioner and pastry-cook's business, hitherto unknown in
+Grimworth, did not quite suffice to turn the scale in the newcomer's
+favour, though the landlady at the Woolpack defended him warmly, said he
+seemed to be a very clever young man, and from what she could make out,
+came of a very good family; indeed, was most likely a good many people's
+betters.
+
+It certainly made a blaze of light and colour, almost as if a rainbow had
+suddenly descended into the market-place, when, one fine morning, the
+shutters were taken down from the new shop, and the two windows displayed
+their decorations.  On one side, there were the variegated tints of
+collared and marbled meats, set off by bright green leaves, the pale
+brown of glazed pies, the rich tones of sauces and bottled fruits
+enclosed in their veil of glass--altogether a sight to bring tears into
+the eyes of a Dutch painter; and on the other, there was a predominance
+of the more delicate hues of pink, and white, and yellow, and buff, in
+the abundant lozenges, candies, sweet biscuits and icings, which to the
+eyes of a bilious person might easily have been blended into a faery
+landscape in Turner's latest style.  What a sight to dawn upon the eyes
+of Grimworth children!  They almost forgot to go to their dinner that
+day, their appetites being preoccupied with imaginary sugar-plums; and I
+think even Punch, setting up his tabernacle in the market-place, would
+not have succeeded in drawing them away from those shop-windows, where
+they stood according to gradations of size and strength, the biggest and
+strongest being nearest the window, and the little ones in the outermost
+rows lifting wide-open eyes and mouths towards the upper tier of jars,
+like small birds at meal-time.
+
+The elder inhabitants pished and pshawed a little at the folly of the new
+shopkeeper in venturing on such an outlay in goods that would not keep;
+to be sure, Christmas was coming, but what housewife in Grimworth would
+not think shame to furnish forth her table with articles that were not
+home-cooked?  No, no.  Mr. Edward Freely, as he called himself, was
+deceived, if he thought Grimworth money was to flow into his pockets on
+such terms.
+
+Edward Freely was the name that shone in gilt letters on a mazarine
+ground over the doorplace of the new shop--a generous-sounding name, that
+might have belonged to the open-hearted, improvident hero of an old
+comedy, who would have delighted in raining sugared almonds, like a new
+manna-gift, among that small generation outside the windows.  But Mr.
+Edward Freely was a man whose impulses were kept in due subordination: he
+held that the desire for sweets and pastry must only be satisfied in a
+direct ratio with the power of paying for them.  If the smallest child in
+Grimworth would go to him with a halfpenny in its tiny fist, he would,
+after ringing the halfpenny, deliver a just equivalent in "rock."  He was
+not a man to cheat even the smallest child--he often said so, observing
+at the same time that he loved honesty, and also that he was very tender-
+hearted, though he didn't show his feelings as some people did.
+
+Either in reward of such virtue, or according to some more hidden law of
+sequence, Mr. Freely's business, in spite of prejudice, started under
+favourable auspices.  For Mrs. Chaloner, the rector's wife, was among the
+earliest customers at the shop, thinking it only right to encourage a new
+parishioner who had made a decorous appearance at church; and she found
+Mr. Freely a most civil, obliging young man, and intelligent to a
+surprising degree for a confectioner; well-principled, too, for in giving
+her useful hints about choosing sugars he had thrown much light on the
+dishonesty of other tradesmen.  Moreover, he had been in the West Indies,
+and had seen the very estate which had been her poor grandfather's
+property; and he said the missionaries were the only cause of the negro's
+discontent--an observing young man, evidently.  Mrs. Chaloner ordered
+wine-biscuits and olives, and gave Mr. Freely to understand that she
+should find his shop a great convenience.  So did the doctor's wife, and
+so did Mrs. Gate, at the large carding-mill, who, having high connexions
+frequently visiting her, might be expected to have a large consumption of
+ratafias and macaroons.
+
+The less aristocratic matrons of Grimworth seemed likely at first to
+justify their husbands' confidence that they would never pay a percentage
+of profits on drop-cakes, instead of making their own, or get up a hollow
+show of liberal housekeeping by purchasing slices of collared meat when a
+neighbour came in for supper.  But it is my task to narrate the gradual
+corruption of Grimworth manners from their primitive simplicity--a
+melancholy task, if it were not cheered by the prospect of the fine
+peripateia or downfall by which the progress of the corruption was
+ultimately checked.
+
+It was young Mrs. Steene, the veterinary surgeons wife, who first gave
+way to temptation.  I fear she had been rather over-educated for her
+station in life, for she knew by heart many passages in _Lalla Rookh_,
+the _Corsair_, and the _Siege of Corinth_, which had given her a distaste
+for domestic occupations, and caused her a withering disappointment at
+the discovery that Mr. Steene, since his marriage, had lost all interest
+in the "bulbul," openly preferred discussing the nature of spavin with a
+coarse neighbour, and was angry if the pudding turned out watery--indeed,
+was simply a top-booted "vet.", who came in hungry at dinner-time; and
+not in the least like a nobleman turned Corsair out of pure scorn for his
+race, or like a renegade with a turban and crescent, unless it were in
+the irritability of his temper.  And scorn is such a very different thing
+in top-boots!
+
+This brutal man had invited a supper-party for Christmas eve, when he
+would expect to see mince-pies on the table.  Mrs. Steene had prepared
+her mince-meat, and had devoted much butter, fine flour, and labour, to
+the making of a batch of pies in the morning; but they proved to be so
+very heavy when they came out of the oven, that she could only think with
+trembling of the moment when her husband should catch sight of them on
+the supper-table.  He would storm at her, she was certain; and before all
+the company; and then she should never help crying: it was so dreadful to
+think she had come to that, after the bulbul and everything!  Suddenly
+the thought darted through her mind that _this once_ she might send for a
+dish of mince-pies from Freely's: she knew he had some.  But what was to
+become of the eighteen heavy mince-pies?  Oh, it was of no use thinking
+about that; it was very expensive--indeed, making mince-pies at all was a
+great expense, when they were not sure to turn out well: it would be much
+better to buy them ready-made.  You paid a little more for them, but
+there was no risk of waste.
+
+Such was the sophistry with which this misguided young woman--enough.
+Mrs. Steene sent for the mince-pies, and, I am grieved to add, garbled
+her household accounts in order to conceal the fact from her husband.
+This was the second step in a downward course, all owing to a young
+woman's being out of harmony with her circumstances, yearning after
+renegades and bulbuls, and being subject to claims from a veterinary
+surgeon fond of mince-pies.  The third step was to harden herself by
+telling the fact of the bought mince-pies to her intimate friend Mrs.
+Mole, who had already guessed it, and who subsequently encouraged herself
+in buying a mould of jelly, instead of exerting her own skill, by the
+reflection that "other people" did the same sort of thing.  The infection
+spread; soon there was a party or clique in Grimworth on the side of
+"buying at Freely's"; and many husbands, kept for some time in the dark
+on this point, innocently swallowed at two mouthfuls a tart on which they
+were paying a profit of a hundred per cent., and as innocently encouraged
+a fatal disingenuousness in the partners of their bosoms by praising the
+pastry.  Others, more keen-sighted, winked at the too frequent
+presentation on washing-days, and at impromptu suppers, of superior
+spiced-beef, which flattered their palates more than the cold remnants
+they had formerly been contented with.  Every housewife who had once
+"bought at Freely's" felt a secret joy when she detected a similar
+perversion in her neighbour's practice, and soon only two or three old-
+fashioned mistresses of families held out in the protest against the
+growing demoralization, saying to their neighbours who came to sup with
+them, "I can't offer you Freely's beef, or Freely's cheesecakes;
+everything in our house is home-made; I'm afraid you'll hardly have any
+appetite for our plain pastry."  The doctor, whose cook was not
+satisfactory, the curate, who kept no cook, and the mining agent, who was
+a great _bon vivant_, even began to rely on Freely for the greater part
+of their dinner, when they wished to give an entertainment of some
+brilliancy.  In short, the business of manufacturing the more fanciful
+viands was fast passing out of the hinds of maids and matrons in private
+families, and was becoming the work of a special commercial organ.
+
+I am not ignorant that this sort of thing is called the inevitable course
+of civilization, division of labour, and so forth, and that the maids and
+matrons may be said to have had their hands set free from cookery to add
+to the wealth of society in some other way.  Only it happened at
+Grimworth, which, to be sure, was a low place, that the maids and matrons
+could do nothing with their hands at all better than cooking: not even
+those who had always made heavy cakes and leathery pastry.  And so it
+came to pass, that the progress of civilization at Grimworth was not
+otherwise apparent than in the impoverishment of men, the gossiping
+idleness of women, and the heightening prosperity of Mr. Edward Freely.
+
+The Yellow Coat School was a double source of profit to the calculating
+confectioner; for he opened an eating-room for the superior workmen
+employed on the new school, and he accommodated the pupils at the old
+school by giving great attention to the fancy-sugar department.  When I
+think of the sweet-tasted swans and other ingenious white shapes crunched
+by the small teeth of that rising generation, I am glad to remember that
+a certain amount of calcareous food has been held good for young
+creatures whose bones are not quite formed; for I have observed these
+delicacies to have an inorganic flavour which would have recommended them
+greatly to that young lady of the _Spectator's_ acquaintance who
+habitually made her dessert on the stems of tobacco-pipes.
+
+As for the confectioner himself, he made his way gradually into Grimworth
+homes, as his commodities did, in spite of some initial repugnance.
+Somehow or other, his reception as a guest seemed a thing that required
+justifying, like the purchasing of his pastry.  In the first place, he
+was a stranger, and therefore open to suspicion; secondly, the
+confectionery business was so entirely new at Grimworth, that its place
+in the scale of rank had not been distinctly ascertained.  There was no
+doubt about drapers and grocers, when they came of good old Grimworth
+families, like Mr. Luff and Mr. Prettyman: they visited with the
+Palfreys, who farmed their own land, played many a game at whist with the
+doctor, and condescended a little towards the timber-merchant, who had
+lately taken to the coal-trade also, and had got new furniture; but
+whether a confectioner should be admitted to this higher level of
+respectability, or should be understood to find his associates among
+butchers and bakers, was a new question on which tradition threw no
+light.  His being a bachelor was in his favour, and would perhaps have
+been enough to turn the scale, even if Mr. Edward Freely's other personal
+pretensions had been of an entirely insignificant cast.  But so far from
+this, it very soon appeared that he was a remarkable young man, who had
+been in the West Indies, and had seen many wonders by sea and land, so
+that he could charm the ears of Grimworth Desdemonas with stories of
+strange fishes, especially sharks, which he had stabbed in the nick of
+time by bravely plunging overboard just as the monster was turning on his
+side to devour the cook's mate; of terrible fevers which he had undergone
+in a land where the wind blows from all quarters at once; of rounds of
+toast cut straight from the breadfruit trees; of toes bitten off by land-
+crabs; of large honours that had been offered to him as a man who knew
+what was what, and was therefore particularly needed in a tropical
+climate; and of a Creole heiress who had wept bitterly at his departure.
+Such conversational talents as these, we know, will overcome
+disadvantages of complexion; and young Towers, whose cheeks were of the
+finest pink, set off by a fringe of dark whisker, was quite eclipsed by
+the presence of the sallow Mr. Freely.  So exceptional a confectioner
+elevated the business, and might well begin to make disengaged hearts
+flutter a little.
+
+Fathers and mothers were naturally more slow and cautious in their
+recognition of the newcomer's merits.
+
+"He's an amusing fellow," said Mr. Prettyman, the highly respectable
+grocer.  (Mrs. Prettyman was a Miss Fothergill, and her sister had
+married a London mercer.)  "He's an amusing fellow; and I've no objection
+to his making one at the Oyster Club; but he's a bit too fond of riding
+the high horse.  He's uncommonly knowing, I'll allow; but how came he to
+go to the Indies?  I should like that answered.  It's unnatural in a
+confectioner.  I'm not fond of people that have been beyond seas, if they
+can't give a good account how they happened to go.  When folks go so far
+off, it's because they've got little credit nearer home--that's my
+opinion.  However, he's got some good rum; but I don't want to be hand
+and glove with him, for all that."
+
+It was this kind of dim suspicion which beclouded the view of Mr.
+Freely's qualities in the maturer minds of Grimworth through the early
+months of his residence there.  But when the confectioner ceased to be a
+novelty, the suspicions also ceased to be novel, and people got tired of
+hinting at them, especially as they seemed to be refuted by his advancing
+prosperity and importance.  Mr. Freely was becoming a person of influence
+in the parish; he was found useful as an overseer of the poor, having
+great firmness in enduring other people's pain, which firmness, he said,
+was due to his great benevolence; he always did what was good for people
+in the end.  Mr. Chaloner had even selected him as clergyman's
+churchwarden, for he was a very handy man, and much more of Mr.
+Chaloner's opinion in everything about church business than the older
+parishioners.  Mr. Freely was a very regular churchman, but at the Oyster
+Club he was sometimes a little free in his conversation, more than
+hinting at a life of Sultanic self-indulgence which he had passed in the
+West Indies, shaking his head now and then and smiling rather bitterly,
+as men are wont to do when they intimate that they have become a little
+too wise to be instructed about a world which has long been flat and
+stale to them.
+
+For some time he was quite general in his attentions to the fair sex,
+combining the gallantries of a lady's man with a severity of criticism on
+the person and manners of absent belles, which tended rather to stimulate
+in the feminine breast the desire to conquer the approval of so
+fastidious a judge.  Nothing short of the very best in the department of
+female charms and virtues could suffice to kindle the ardour of Mr.
+Edward Freely, who had become familiar with the most luxuriant and
+dazzling beauty in the West Indies.  It may seem incredible that a
+confectioner should have ideas and conversation so much resembling those
+to be met with in a higher walk of life, but it must be remembered that
+he had not merely travelled, he had also bow-legs and a sallow, small-
+featured visage, so that nature herself had stamped him for a fastidious
+connoisseur of the fair sex.
+
+At last, however, it seemed clear that Cupid had found a sharper arrow
+than usual, and that Mr. Freely's heart was pierced.  It was the general
+talk among the young people at Grimworth.  But was it really love, and
+not rather ambition?  Miss Fullilove, the timber-merchant's daughter, was
+quite sure that if _she_ were Miss Penny Palfrey, she would be cautious;
+it was not a good sign when men looked so much above themselves for a
+wife.  For it was no less a person than Miss Penelope Palfrey, second
+daughter of the Mr. Palfrey who farmed his own land, that had attracted
+Mr. Freely's peculiar regard, and conquered his fastidiousness; and no
+wonder, for the Ideal, as exhibited in the finest waxwork, was perhaps
+never so closely approached by the Real as in the person of the pretty
+Penelope.  Her yellowish flaxen hair did not curl naturally, I admit, but
+its bright crisp ringlets were such smooth, perfect miniature tubes, that
+you would have longed to pass your little finger through them, and feel
+their soft elasticity.  She wore them in a crop, for in those days, when
+society was in a healthier state, young ladies wore crops long after they
+were twenty, and Penelope was not yet nineteen.  Like the waxen ideal,
+she had round blue eyes, and round nostrils in her little nose, and teeth
+such as the ideal would be seen to have, if it ever showed them.
+Altogether, she was a small, round thing, as neat as a pink and white
+double daisy, and as guileless; for I hope it does not argue guile in a
+pretty damsel of nineteen, to think that she should like to have a beau
+and be "engaged," when her elder sister had already been in that position
+a year and a half.  To be sure, there was young Towers always coming to
+the house; but Penny felt convinced he only came to see her brother, for
+he never had anything to say to her, and never offered her his arm, and
+was as awkward and silent as possible.
+
+It is not unlikely that Mr. Freely had early been smitten by Penny's
+charms, as brought under his observation at church, but he had to make
+his way in society a little before he could come into nearer contact with
+them; and even after he was well received in Grimworth families, it was a
+long while before he could converse with Penny otherwise than in an
+incidental meeting at Mr. Luff's.  It was not so easy to get invited to
+Long Meadows, the residence of the Palfreys; for though Mr. Palfrey had
+been losing money of late years, not being able quite to recover his feet
+after the terrible murrain which forced him to borrow, his family were
+far from considering themselves on the same level even as the
+old-established tradespeople with whom they visited.  The greatest
+people, even kings and queens, must visit with somebody, and the equals
+of the great are scarce.  They were especially scarce at Grimworth,
+which, as I have before observed, was a low parish, mentioned with the
+most scornful brevity in gazetteers.  Even the great people there were
+far behind those of their own standing in other parts of this realm.  Mr.
+Palfrey's farmyard doors had the paint all worn off them, and the front
+garden walks had long been merged in a general weediness.  Still, his
+father had been called Squire Palfrey, and had been respected by the last
+Grimworth generation as a man who could afford to drink too much in his
+own house.
+
+Pretty Penny was not blind to the fact that Mr. Freely admired her, and
+she felt sure that it was he who had sent her a beautiful valentine; but
+her sister seemed to think so lightly of him (all young ladies think
+lightly of the gentlemen to whom they are not engaged), that Penny never
+dared mention him, and trembled and blushed whenever they met him,
+thinking of the valentine, which was very strong in its expressions, and
+which she felt guilty of knowing by heart.  A man who had been to the
+Indies, and knew the sea so well, seemed to her a sort of public
+character, almost like Robinson Crusoe or Captain Cook; and Penny had
+always wished her husband to be a remarkable personage, likely to be put
+in Mangnall's Questions, with which register of the immortals she had
+become acquainted during her one year at a boarding-school.  Only it
+seemed strange that a remarkable man should be a confectioner and pastry-
+cook, and this anomaly quite disturbed Penny's dreams.  Her brothers, she
+knew, laughed at men who couldn't sit on horseback well, and called them
+tailors; but her brothers were very rough, and were quite without that
+power of anecdote which made Mr. Freely such a delightful companion.  He
+was a very good man, she thought, for she had heard him say at Mr.
+Luff's, one day, that he always wished to do his duty in whatever state
+of life he might be placed; and he knew a great deal of poetry, for one
+day he had repeated a verse of a song.  She wondered if he had made the
+words of the valentine!--it ended in this way:--
+
+   "Without thee, it is pain to live,
+   But with thee, it were sweet to die."
+
+Poor Mr. Freely! her father would very likely object--she felt sure he
+would, for he always called Mr. Freely "that sugar-plum fellow."  Oh, it
+was very cruel, when true love was crossed in that way, and all because
+Mr. Freely was a confectioner: well, Penny would be true to him, for all
+that, and since his being a confectioner gave her an opportunity of
+showing her faithfulness, she was glad of it.  Edward Freely was a pretty
+name, much better than John Towers.  Young Towers had offered her a rose
+out of his button-hole the other day, blushing very much; but she refused
+it, and thought with delight how much Mr. Freely would be comforted if he
+knew her firmness of mind.
+
+Poor little Penny! the days were so very long among the daisies on a
+grazing farm, and thought is so active--how was it possible that the
+inward drama should not get the start of the outward?  I have known young
+ladies, much better educated, and with an outward world diversified by
+instructive lectures, to say nothing of literature and highly-developed
+fancy-work, who have spun a cocoon of visionary joys and sorrows for
+themselves, just as Penny did.  Her elder sister Letitia, who had a
+prouder style of beauty, and a more worldly ambition, was engaged to a
+wool-factor, who came all the way from Cattelton to see her; and
+everybody knows that a wool-factor takes a very high rank, sometimes
+driving a double-bodied gig.  Letty's notions got higher every day, and
+Penny never dared to speak of her cherished griefs to her lofty
+sister--never dared to propose that they should call at Mr. Freely's to
+buy liquorice, though she had prepared for such an incident by mentioning
+a slight sore throat.  So she had to pass the shop on the other side of
+the market-place, and reflect, with a suppressed sigh, that behind those
+pink and white jars somebody was thinking of her tenderly, unconscious of
+the small space that divided her from him.
+
+And it was quite true that, when business permitted, Mr. Freely thought a
+great deal of Penny.  He thought her prettiness comparable to the
+loveliest things in confectionery; he judged her to be of submissive
+temper--likely to wait upon him as well as if she had been a negress, and
+to be silently terrified when his liver made him irritable; and he
+considered the Palfrey family quite the best in the parish, possessing
+marriageable daughters.  On the whole, he thought her worthy to become
+Mrs. Edward Freely, and all the more so, because it would probably
+require some ingenuity to win her.  Mr. Palfrey was capable of
+horse-whipping a too rash pretender to his daughter's hand; and,
+moreover, he had three tall sons: it was clear that a suitor would be at
+a disadvantage with such a family, unless travel and natural acumen had
+given him a countervailing power of contrivance.  And the first idea that
+occurred to him in the matter was, that Mr. Palfrey would object less if
+he knew that the Freelys were a much higher family than his own.  It had
+been foolish modesty in him hitherto to conceal the fact that a branch of
+the Freelys held a manor in Yorkshire, and to shut up the portrait of his
+great uncle the admiral, instead of hanging it up where a family portrait
+should be hung--over the mantelpiece in the parlour.  Admiral Freely,
+K.C.B., once placed in this conspicuous position, was seen to have had
+one arm only, and one eye--in these points resembling the heroic
+Nelson--while a certain pallid insignificance of feature confirmed the
+relationship between himself and his grand-nephew.
+
+Next, Mr. Freely was seized with an irrepressible ambition to posses Mrs.
+Palfrey's receipt for brawn, hers being pronounced on all hands to be
+superior to his own--as he informed her in a very flattering letter
+carried by his errand-boy.  Now Mrs. Palfrey, like other geniuses,
+wrought by instinct rather than by rule, and possessed no
+receipts--indeed, despised all people who used them, observing that
+people who pickled by book, must pickle by weights and measures, and such
+nonsense; as for herself, her weights and measures were the tip of her
+finger and the tip of her tongue, and if you went nearer, why, of course,
+for dry goods like flour and spice, you went by handfuls and pinches, and
+for wet, there was a middle-sized jug--quite the best thing whether for
+much or little, because you might know how much a teacupful was if you'd
+got any use of your senses, and you might be sure it would take five
+middle-sized jugs to make a gallon.  Knowledge of this kind is like
+Titian's colouring, difficult to communicate; and as Mrs. Palfrey, once
+remarkably handsome, had now become rather stout and asthmatical, and
+scarcely ever left home, her oral teaching could hardly be given anywhere
+except at Long Meadows.  Even a matron is not insusceptible to flattery,
+and the prospect of a visitor whose great object would be to listen to
+her conversation, was not without its charms to Mrs. Palfrey.  Since
+there was no receipt to be sent in reply to Mr. Freely's humble request,
+she called on her more docile daughter, Penny, to write a note, telling
+him that her mother would be glad to see him and talk with him on brawn,
+any day that he could call at Long Meadows.  Penny obeyed with a
+trembling hand, thinking how wonderfully things came about in this world.
+
+In this way, Mr. Freely got himself introduced into the home of the
+Palfreys, and notwithstanding a tendency in the male part of the family
+to jeer at him a little as "peaky" and bow-legged, he presently
+established his position as an accepted and frequent guest.  Young Towers
+looked at him with increasing disgust when they met at the house on a
+Sunday, and secretly longed to try his ferret upon him, as a piece of
+vermin which that valuable animal would be likely to tackle with
+unhesitating vigour.  But--so blind sometimes are parents--neither Mr.
+nor Mrs. Palfrey suspected that Penny would have anything to say to a
+tradesman of questionable rank whose youthful bloom was much withered.
+Young Towers, they thought, had an eye to her, and _that_ was likely
+enough to be a match some day; but Penny was a child at present.  And all
+the while Penny was imagining the circumstances under which Mr. Freely
+would make her an offer: perhaps down by the row of damson-trees, when
+they were in the garden before tea; perhaps by letter--in which case, how
+would the letter begin?  "Dearest Penelope?" or "My dear Miss Penelope?"
+or straight off, without dear anything, as seemed the most natural when
+people were embarrassed?  But, however he might make the offer, she would
+not accept it without her father's consent: she would always be true to
+Mr. Freely, but she would not disobey her father.  For Penny was a good
+girl, though some of her female friends were afterwards of opinion that
+it spoke ill for her not to have felt an instinctive repugnance to Mr.
+Freely.
+
+But he was cautious, and wished to be quite sure of the ground he trod
+on.  His views on marriage were not entirely sentimental, but were as
+duly mingled with considerations of what would be advantageous to a man
+in his position, as if he had had a very large amount of money spent on
+his education.  He was not a man to fall in love in the wrong place; and
+so, he applied himself quite as much to conciliate the favour of the
+parents, as to secure the attachment of Penny.  Mrs. Palfrey had not been
+inaccessible to flattery, and her husband, being also of mortal mould,
+would not, it might be hoped, be proof against rum--that very fine
+Jamaica rum--of which Mr. Freely expected always to have a supply sent
+him from Jamaica.  It was not easy to get Mr. Palfrey into the parlour
+behind the shop, where a mild back-street light fell on the features of
+the heroic admiral; but by getting hold of him rather late one evening as
+he was about to return home from Grimworth, the aspiring lover succeeded
+in persuading him to sup on some collared beef which, after Mrs.
+Palfrey's brawn, he would find the very best of cold eating.
+
+From that hour Mr. Freely felt sure of success: being in privacy with an
+estimable man old enough to be his father, and being rather lonely in the
+world, it was natural he should unbosom himself a little on subjects
+which he could not speak of in a mixed circle--especially concerning his
+expectations from his uncle in Jamaica, who had no children, and loved
+his nephew Edward better than any one else in the world, though he had
+been so hurt at his leaving Jamaica, that he had threatened to cut him
+off with a shilling.  However, he had since written to state his full
+forgiveness, and though he was an eccentric old gentleman and could not
+bear to give away money during his life, Mr. Edward Freely could show Mr.
+Palfrey the letter which declared, plainly enough, who would be the
+affectionate uncle's heir.  Mr. Palfrey actually saw the letter, and
+could not help admiring the spirit of the nephew who declared that such
+brilliant hopes as these made no difference to his conduct; he should
+work at his humble business and make his modest fortune at it all the
+same.  If the Jamaica estate was to come to him--well and good.  It was
+nothing very surprising for one of the Freely family to have an estate
+left him, considering the lands that family had possessed in time gone
+by--nay, still possessed in the Northumberland branch.  Would not Mr.
+Palfrey take another glass of rum? and also look at the last year's
+balance of the accounts?  Mr. Freely was a man who cared to possess
+personal virtues, and did not pique himself on his family, though some
+men would.
+
+We know how easily the great Leviathan may be led, when once there is a
+hook in his nose or a bridle in his jaws.  Mr. Palfrey was a large man,
+but, like Leviathan's, his bulk went against him when once he had taken a
+turning.  He was not a mercurial man, who easily changed his point of
+view.  Enough.  Before two months were over, he had given his consent to
+Mr. Freely's marriage with his daughter Penny, and having hit on a
+formula by which he could justify it, fenced off all doubts and
+objections, his own included.  The formula was this: "I'm not a man to
+put my head up an entry before I know where it leads."
+
+Little Penny was very proud and fluttering, but hardly so happy as she
+expected to be in an engagement.  She wondered if young Towers cared much
+about it, for he had not been to the house lately, and her sister and
+brothers were rather inclined to sneer than to sympathize.  Grimworth
+rang with the news.  All men extolled Mr. Freely's good fortune; while
+the women, with the tender solicitude characteristic of the sex, wished
+the marriage might turn out well.
+
+While affairs were at this triumphant juncture, Mr. Freely one morning
+observed that a stone-carver who had been breakfasting in the eating-room
+had left a newspaper behind.  It was the _X-shire Gazette_, and X-shire
+being a county not unknown to Mr. Freely, he felt some curiosity to
+glance over it, and especially over the advertisements.  A slight flush
+came over his face as he read.  It was produced by the following
+announcement:--"If David Faux, son of Jonathan Faux, late of Gilsbrook,
+will apply at the office of Mr. Strutt, attorney, of Rodham, he will hear
+of something to his advantage."
+
+"Father's dead!" exclaimed Mr. Freely, involuntarily.  "Can he have left
+me a legacy?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Perhaps it was a result quite different from your expectations, that Mr.
+David Faux should have returned from the West Indies only a few years
+after his arrival there, and have set up in his old business, like any
+plain man who has never travelled.  But these cases do occur in life.
+Since, as we know, men change their skies and see new constellations
+without changing their souls, it will follow sometimes that they don't
+change their business under those novel circumstances.
+
+Certainly, this result was contrary to David's own expectations.  He had
+looked forward, you are aware, to a brilliant career among "the blacks";
+but, either because they had already seen too many white men, or for some
+other reason, they did not at once recognize him as a superior order of
+human being; besides, there were no princesses among them.  Nobody in
+Jamaica was anxious to maintain David for the mere pleasure of his
+society; and those hidden merits of a man which are so well known to
+himself were as little recognized there as they notoriously are in the
+effete society of the Old World.  So that in the dark hints that David
+threw out at the Oyster Club about that life of Sultanic self-indulgence
+spent by him in the luxurious Indies, I really think he was doing himself
+a wrong; I believe he worked for his bread, and, in fact, took to cooking
+as, after all, the only department in which he could offer skilled
+labour.  He had formed several ingenious plans by which he meant to
+circumvent people of large fortune and small faculty; but then he never
+met with exactly the right circumstances.  David's devices for getting
+rich without work had apparently no direct relation with the world
+outside him, as his confectionery receipts had.  It is possible to pass a
+great many bad half pennies and bad half-crowns, but I believe there has
+no instance been known of passing a halfpenny or a half-crown as a
+sovereign.  A sharper can drive a brisk trade in this world: it is
+undeniable that there may be a fine career for him, if he will dare
+consequences; but David was too timid to be a sharper, or venture in any
+way among the mantraps of the law.  He dared rob nobody but his mother.
+And so he had to fall back on the genuine value there was in him--to be
+content to pass as a good halfpenny, or, to speak more accurately, as a
+good confectioner.  For in spite of some additional reading and
+observation, there was nothing else he could make so much money by; nay,
+he found in himself even a capability of extending his skill in this
+direction, and embracing all forms of cookery; while, in other branches
+of human labour, he began to see that it was not possible for him to
+shine.  Fate was too strong for him; he had thought to master her
+inclination and had fled over the seas to that end; but she caught him,
+tied an apron round him, and snatching him from all other devices, made
+him devise cakes and patties in a kitchen at Kingstown.  He was getting
+submissive to her, since she paid him with tolerable gains; but fevers
+and prickly heat, and other evils incidental to cooks in ardent climates,
+made him long for his native land; so he took ship once more, carrying
+his six years' savings, and seeing distinctly, this time, what were
+Fate's intentions as to his career.  If you question me closely as to
+whether all the money with which he set up at Grimworth consisted of pure
+and simple earnings, I am obliged to confess that he got a sum or two for
+charitably abstaining from mentioning some other people's misdemeanours.
+Altogether, since no prospects were attached to his family name, and
+since a new christening seemed a suitable commencement of a new life, Mr.
+David Faux thought it as well to call himself Mr. Edward Freely.
+
+But lo! now, in opposition to all calculable probability, some benefit
+appeared to be attached to the name of David Faux.  Should he neglect it,
+as beneath the attention of a prosperous tradesman?  It might bring him
+into contact with his family again, and he felt no yearnings in that
+direction: moreover, he had small belief that the "something to his
+advantage" could be anything considerable.  On the other hand, even a
+small gain is pleasant, and the promise of it in this instance was so
+surprising, that David felt his curiosity awakened.  The scale dipped at
+last on the side of writing to the lawyer, and, to be brief, the
+correspondence ended in an appointment for a meeting between David and
+his eldest brother at Mr. Strutt's, the vague "something" having been
+defined as a legacy from his father of eighty-two pounds, three
+shillings.
+
+David, you know, had expected to be disinherited; and so he would have
+been, if he had not, like some other indifferent sons, come of excellent
+parents, whose conscience made them scrupulous where much more highly-
+instructed people often feel themselves warranted in following the bent
+of their indignation.  Good Mrs. Faux could never forget that she had
+brought this ill-conditioned son into the world when he was in that
+entirely helpless state which excluded the smallest choice on his part;
+and, somehow or other, she felt that his going wrong would be his
+father's and mother's fault, if they failed in one tittle of their
+parental duty.  Her notion of parental duty was not of a high and subtle
+kind, but it included giving him his due share of the family property;
+for when a man had got a little honest money of his own, was he so likely
+to steal?  To cut the delinquent son off with a shilling, was like
+delivering him over to his evil propensities.  No; let the sum of twenty
+guineas which he had stolen be deducted from his share, and then let the
+sum of three guineas be put back from it, seeing that his mother had
+always considered three of the twenty guineas as his; and, though he had
+run away, and was, perhaps, gone across the sea, let the money be left to
+him all the same, and be kept in reserve for his possible return.  Mr.
+Faux agreed to his wife's views, and made a codicil to his will
+accordingly, in time to die with a clear conscience.  But for some time
+his family thought it likely that David would never reappear; and the
+eldest son, who had the charge of Jacob on his hands, often thought it a
+little hard that David might perhaps be dead, and yet, for want of
+certitude on that point, his legacy could not fall to his legal heir.  But
+in this state of things the opposite certitude--namely, that David was
+still alive and in England--seemed to be brought by the testimony of a
+neighbour, who, having been on a journey to Cattelton, was pretty sure he
+had seen David in a gig, with a stout man driving by his side.  He could
+"swear it was David," though he could "give no account why, for he had no
+marks on him; but no more had a white dog, and that didn't hinder folks
+from knowing a white dog."  It was this incident which had led to the
+advertisement.
+
+The legacy was paid, of course, after a few preliminary disclosures as to
+Mr. David's actual position.  He begged to send his love to his mother,
+and to say that he hoped to pay her a dutiful visit by and by; but, at
+present, his business and near prospect of marriage made it difficult for
+him to leave home.  His brother replied with much frankness.
+
+"My mother may do as she likes about having you to see her, but, for my
+part, I don't want to catch sight of you on the premises again.  When
+folks have taken a new name, they'd better keep to their new
+'quinetance."
+
+David pocketed the insult along with the eighty-two pounds three, and
+travelled home again in some triumph at the ease of a transaction which
+had enriched him to this extent.  He had no intention of offending his
+brother by further claims on his fraternal recognition, and relapsed with
+full contentment into the character of Mr. Edward Freely, the orphan,
+scion of a great but reduced family, with an eccentric uncle in the West
+Indies.  (I have already hinted that he had some acquaintance with
+imaginative literature; and being of a practical turn, he had, you
+perceive, applied even this form of knowledge to practical purposes.)
+
+It was little more than a week after the return from his fruitful
+journey, that the day of his marriage with Penny having been fixed, it
+was agreed that Mrs. Palfrey should overcome her reluctance to move from
+home, and that she and her husband should bring their two daughters to
+inspect little Penny's future abode and decide on the new arrangements to
+be made for the reception of the bride.  Mr. Freely meant her to have a
+house so pretty and comfortable that she need not envy even a
+wool-factor's wife.  Of course, the upper room over the shop was to be
+the best sitting-room; but also the parlour behind the shop was to be
+made a suitable bower for the lovely Penny, who would naturally wish to
+be near her husband, though Mr. Freely declared his resolution never to
+allow _his_ wife to wait in the shop.  The decisions about the parlour
+furniture were left till last, because the party was to take tea there;
+and, about five o'clock, they were all seated there with the best muffins
+and buttered buns before them, little Penny blushing and smiling, with
+her "crop" in the best order, and a blue frock showing her little white
+shoulders, while her opinion was being always asked and never given.  She
+secretly wished to have a particular sort of chimney ornaments, but she
+could not have brought herself to mention it.  Seated by the side of her
+yellow and rather withered lover, who, though he had not reached his
+thirtieth year, had already crow's-feet about his eyes, she was quite
+tremulous at the greatness of her lot in being married to a man who had
+travelled so much--and before her sister Letty!  The handsome Letitia
+looked rather proud and contemptuous, thought her nature brother-in-law
+an odious person, and was vexed with her father and mother for letting
+Penny marry him.  Dear little Penny!  She certainly did look like a fresh
+white-heart cherry going to be bitten off the stem by that lipless mouth.
+Would no deliverer come to make a slip between that cherry and that mouth
+without a lip?
+
+"Quite a family likeness between the admiral and you, Mr. Freely,"
+observed Mrs. Palfrey, who was looking at the family portrait for the
+first time.  "It's wonderful! and only a grand-uncle.  Do you feature the
+rest of your family, as you know of?"
+
+"I can't say," said Mr. Freely, with a sigh.  "My family have mostly
+thought themselves too high to take any notice of me."
+
+At this moment an extraordinary disturbance was heard in the shop, as of
+a heavy animal stamping about and making angry noises, and then of a
+glass vessel falling in shivers, while the voice of the apprentice was
+heard calling "Master" in great alarm.
+
+Mr. Freely rose in anxious astonishment, and hastened into the shop,
+followed by the four Palfreys, who made a group at the parlour-door,
+transfixed with wonder at seeing a large man in a smock-frock, with a
+pitchfork in his hand, rush up to Mr. Freely and hug him, crying
+out,--"Zavy, Zavy, b'other Zavy!"
+
+It was Jacob, and for some moments David lost all presence of mind.  He
+felt arrested for having stolen his mother's guineas.  He turned cold,
+and trembled in his brother's grasp.
+
+"Why, how's this?" said Mr. Palfrey, advancing from the door.  "Who is
+he?"
+
+Jacob supplied the answer by saying over and over again--
+
+"I'se Zacob, b'other Zacob.  Come 'o zee Zavy"--till hunger prompted him
+to relax his grasp, and to seize a large raised pie, which he lifted to
+his mouth.
+
+By this time David's power of device had begun to return, but it was a
+very hard task for his prudence to master his rage and hatred towards
+poor Jacob.
+
+"I don't know who he is; he must be drunk," he said, in a low tone to Mr.
+Palfrey.  "But he's dangerous with that pitchfork.  He'll never let it
+go."  Then checking himself on the point of betraying too great an
+intimacy with Jacob's habits, he added "You watch him, while I run for
+the constable."  And he hurried out of the shop.
+
+"Why, where do you come from, my man?" said Mr. Palfrey, speaking to
+Jacob in a conciliatory tone.  Jacob was eating his pie by large
+mouthfuls, and looking round at the other good things in the shop, while
+he embraced his pitchfork with his left arm, and laid his left hand on
+some Bath buns.  He was in the rare position of a person who recovers a
+long absent friend and finds him richer than ever in the characteristics
+that won his heart.
+
+"I's Zacob--b'other Zacob--'t home.  I love Zavy--b'other Zavy," he said,
+as soon as Mr. Palfrey had drawn his attention.  "Zavy come back from z'
+Indies--got mother's zinnies.  Where's Zavy?" he added, looking round and
+then turning to the others with a questioning air, puzzled by David's
+disappearance.
+
+"It's very odd," observed Mr. Palfrey to his wife and daughters.  "He
+seems to say Freely's his brother come back from th' Indies."
+
+"What a pleasant relation for us!" said Letitia, sarcastically.  "I think
+he's a good deal like Mr. Freely.  He's got just the same sort of nose,
+and his eyes are the same colour."
+
+Poor Penny was ready to cry.
+
+But now Mr. Freely re-entered the shop without the constable.  During his
+walk of a few yards he had had time and calmness enough to widen his view
+of consequences, and he saw that to get Jacob taken to the workhouse or
+to the lock-up house as an offensive stranger might have awkward effects
+if his family took the trouble of inquiring after him.  He must resign
+himself to more patient measures.
+
+"On second thoughts," he said, beckoning to Mr. Palfrey and whispering to
+him while Jacob's back was turned, "he's a poor half-witted fellow.
+Perhaps his friends will come after him.  I don't mind giving him
+something to eat, and letting him lie down for the night.  He's got it
+into his head that he knows me--they do get these fancies, idiots do.
+He'll perhaps go away again in an hour or two, and make no more ado.  I'm
+a kind-hearted man _myself_--I shouldn't like to have the poor fellow ill-
+used."
+
+"Why, he'll eat a sovereign's worth in no time," said Mr. Palfrey,
+thinking Mr. Freely a little too magnificent in his generosity.
+
+"Eh, Zavy, come back?" exclaimed Jacob, giving his dear brother another
+hug, which crushed Mr. Freely's features inconveniently against the stale
+of the pitchfork.
+
+"Aye, aye," said Mr. Freely, smiling, with every capability of murder in
+his mind, except the courage to commit it.  He wished the Bath buns might
+by chance have arsenic in them.
+
+"Mother's zinnies?" said Jacob, pointing to a glass jar of yellow
+lozenges that stood in the window.  "Zive 'em me."
+
+David dared not do otherwise than reach down the glass jar and give Jacob
+a handful.  He received them in his smock-frock, which he held out for
+more.
+
+"They'll keep him quiet a bit, at any rate," thought David, and emptied
+the jar.  Jacob grinned and mowed with delight.
+
+"You're very good to this stranger, Mr. Freely," said Letitia; and then
+spitefully, as David joined the party at the parlour-door, "I think you
+could hardly treat him better, if he was really your brother."
+
+"I've always thought it a duty to be good to idiots," said Mr. Freely,
+striving after the most moral view of the subject.  "We might have been
+idiots ourselves--everybody might have been born idiots, instead of
+having their right senses."
+
+"I don't know where there'd ha' been victual for us all then," observed
+Mrs. Palfrey, regarding the matter in a housewifely light.
+
+"But let us sit down again and finish our tea," said Mr. Freely.  "Let us
+leave the poor creature to himself."
+
+They walked into the parlour again; but Jacob, not apparently
+appreciating the kindness of leaving him to himself, immediately followed
+his brother, and seated himself, pitchfork grounded, at the table.
+
+"Well," said Miss Letitia, rising, "I don't know whether _you_ mean to
+stay, mother; but I shall go home."
+
+"Oh, me too," said Penny, frightened to death at Jacob, who had begun to
+nod and grin at her.
+
+"Well, I think we _had_ better be going, Mr. Palfrey," said the mother,
+rising more slowly.
+
+Mr. Freely, whose complexion had become decidedly yellower during the
+last half-hour, did not resist this proposition.  He hoped they should
+meet again "under happier circumstances."
+
+"It's my belief the man is his brother," said Letitia, when they were all
+on their way home.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Mr. Palfrey.  "Freely's got no brother--he's said so
+many and many a time; he's an orphan; he's got nothing but
+uncles--leastwise, one.  What's it matter what an idiot says?  What call
+had Freely to tell lies?"
+
+Letitia tossed her head and was silent.
+
+Mr. Freely, left alone with his affectionate brother Jacob, brooded over
+the possibility of luring him out of the town early the next morning, and
+getting him conveyed to Gilsbrook without further betrayals.  But the
+thing was difficult.  He saw clearly that if he took Jacob himself, his
+absence, conjoined with the disappearance of the stranger, would either
+cause the conviction that he was really a relative, or would oblige him
+to the dangerous course of inventing a story to account for his
+disappearance, and his own absence at the same time.  David groaned.
+There come occasions when falsehood is felt to be inconvenient.  It
+would, perhaps, have been a longer-headed device, if he had never told
+any of those clever fibs about his uncles, grand and otherwise; for the
+Palfreys were simple people, and shared the popular prejudice against
+lying.  Even if he could get Jacob away this time, what security was
+there that he would not come again, having once found the way?  O
+guineas!  O lozenges! what enviable people those were who had never
+robbed their mothers, and had never told fibs!  David spent a sleepless
+night, while Jacob was snoring close by.  Was this the upshot of
+travelling to the Indies, and acquiring experience combined with
+anecdote?
+
+He rose at break of day, as he had once before done when he was in fear
+of Jacob, and took all gentle means to rouse this fatal brother from his
+deep sleep; he dared not be loud, because his apprentice was in the
+house, and would report everything.  But Jacob was not to be roused.  He
+fought out with his fist at the unknown cause of disturbance, turned
+over, and snored again.  He must be left to wake as he would.  David,
+with a cold perspiration on his brow, confessed to himself that Jacob
+could not be got away that day.
+
+Mr. Palfrey came over to Grimworth before noon, with a natural curiosity
+to see how his future son-in-law got on with the stranger to whom he was
+so benevolently inclined.  He found a crowd round the shop.  All
+Grimworth by this time had heard how Freely had been fastened on by an
+idiot, who called him "Brother Zavy"; and the younger population seemed
+to find the singular stranger an unwearying source of fascination, while
+the householders dropped in one by one to inquire into the incident.
+
+"Why don't you send him to the workhouse?" said Mr. Prettyman.  "You'll
+have a row with him and the children presently, and he'll eat you up.  The
+workhouse is the proper place for him; let his kin claim him, if he's got
+any."
+
+"Those may be _your_ feelings, Mr. Prettyman," said David, his mind quite
+enfeebled by the torture of his position.
+
+"What! _is_ he your brother, then?" said Mr. Prettyman, looking at his
+neighbour Freely rather sharply.
+
+"All men are our brothers, and idiots particular so," said Mr. Freely,
+who, like many other travelled men, was not master of the English
+language.
+
+"Come, come, if he's your brother, tell the truth, man," said Mr.
+Prettyman, with growing suspicion.  "Don't be ashamed of your own flesh
+and blood."
+
+Mr. Palfrey was present, and also had his eye on Freely.  It is difficult
+for a man to believe in the advantage of a truth which will disclose him
+to have been a liar.  In this critical moment, David shrank from this
+immediate disgrace in the eyes of his future father-in-law.
+
+"Mr. Prettyman," he said, "I take your observations as an insult.  I've
+no reason to be otherwise than proud of my own flesh and blood.  If this
+poor man was my brother more than all men are, I should say so."
+
+A tall figure darkened the door, and David, lifting his eyes in that
+direction, saw his eldest brother, Jonathan, on the door-sill.
+
+"I'll stay wi' Zavy," shouted Jacob, as he, too, caught sight of his
+eldest brother; and, running behind the counter, he clutched David hard.
+
+"What, he _is_ here?" said Jonathan Faux, coming forward.  "My mother
+would have no nay, as he'd been away so long, but I must see after him.
+And it struck me he was very like come after you, because we'd been
+talking of you o' late, and where you lived."
+
+David saw there was no escape; he smiled a ghastly smile.
+
+"What! is this a relation of yours, sir?" said Mr. Palfrey to Jonathan.
+
+"Aye, it's my innicent of a brother, sure enough," said honest Jonathan.
+"A fine trouble and cost he is to us, in th' eating and other things, but
+we must bear what's laid on us."
+
+"And your name's Freely, is it?" said Mr. Prettyman.
+
+"Nay, nay, my name's Faux, I know nothing o' Freelys," said Jonathan,
+curtly.  "Come," he added, turning to David, "I must take some news to
+mother about Jacob.  Shall I take him with me, or will you undertake to
+send him back?"
+
+"Take him, if you can make him loose his hold of me," said David, feebly.
+
+"Is this gentleman here in the confectionery line your brother, then,
+sir?" said Mr. Prettyman, feeling that it was an occasion on which formal
+language must be used.
+
+"_I_ don't want to own him," said Jonathan, unable to resist a movement
+of indignation that had never been allowed to satisfy itself.  "He ran
+away from home with good reasons in his pocket years ago: he didn't want
+to be owned again, I reckon."
+
+Mr. Palfrey left the shop; he felt his own pride too severely wounded by
+the sense that he had let himself be fooled, to feel curiosity for
+further details.  The most pressing business was to go home and tell his
+daughter that Freely was a poor sneak, probably a rascal, and that her
+engagement was broken off.
+
+Mr. Prettyman stayed, with some internal self-gratulation that _he_ had
+never given in to Freely, and that Mr. Chaloner would see now what sort
+of fellow it was that he had put over the heads of older parishioners.  He
+considered it due from him (Mr. Prettyman) that, for the interests of the
+parish, he should know all that was to be known about this "interloper."
+Grimworth would have people coming from Botany Bay to settle in it, if
+things went on in this way.
+
+It soon appeared that Jacob could not be made to quit his dear brother
+David except by force.  He understood, with a clearness equal to that of
+the most intelligent mind, that Jonathan would take him back to skimmed
+milk, apple-dumpling, broad beans, and pork.  And he had found a paradise
+in his brother's shop.  It was a difficult matter to use force with
+Jacob, for he wore heavy nailed boots; and if his pitchfork had been
+mastered, he would have resorted without hesitation to kicks.  Nothing
+short of using guile to bind him hand and foot would have made all
+parties safe.
+
+"Let him stay," said David, with desperate resignation, frightened above
+all things at the idea of further disturbances in his shop, which would
+make his exposure all the more conspicuous.  "_You_ go away again, and to-
+morrow I can, perhaps, get him to go to Gilsbrook with me.  He'll follow
+me fast enough, I daresay," he added, with a half-groan.
+
+"Very well," said Jonathan, gruffly.  "I don't see why _you_ shouldn't
+have some trouble and expense with him as well as the rest of us.  But
+mind you bring him back safe and soon, else mother'll never rest."
+
+On this arrangement being concluded, Mr. Prettyman begged Mr. Jonathan
+Faux to go and take a snack with him, an invitation which was quite
+acceptable; and as honest Jonathan had nothing to be ashamed of, it is
+probable that he was very frank in his communications to the civil
+draper, who, pursuing the benefit of the parish, hastened to make all the
+information he could gather about Freely common parochial property.  You
+may imagine that the meeting of the Club at the Woolpack that evening was
+unusually lively.  Every member was anxious to prove that he had never
+liked Freely, as he called himself.  Faux was his name, was it?  Fox
+would have been more suitable.  The majority expressed a desire to see
+him hooted out of the town.
+
+Mr. Freely did not venture over his door-sill that day, for he knew Jacob
+would keep at his side, and there was every probability that they would
+have a train of juvenile followers.  He sent to engage the Woolpack gig
+for an early hour the next morning; but this order was not kept
+religiously a secret by the landlord.  Mr. Freely was informed that he
+could not have the gig till seven; and the Grimworth people were early
+risers.  Perhaps they were more alert than usual on this particular
+morning; for when Jacob, with a bag of sweets in his hand, was induced to
+mount the gig with his brother David, the inhabitants of the market-place
+were looking out of their doors and windows, and at the turning of the
+street there was even a muster of apprentices and schoolboys, who shouted
+as they passed in what Jacob took to be a very merry and friendly way,
+nodding and grinning in return.  "Huzzay, David Faux! how's your uncle?"
+was their morning's greeting.  Like other pointed things, it was not
+altogether impromptu.
+
+Even this public derision was not so crushing to David as the horrible
+thought that though he might succeed now in getting Jacob home again
+there would never be any security against his coming back, like a wasp to
+the honey-pot.  As long as David lived at Grimworth, Jacob's return would
+be hanging over him.  But could he go on living at Grimworth--an object
+of ridicule, discarded by the Palfreys, after having revelled in the
+consciousness that he was an envied and prosperous confectioner?  David
+liked to be envied; he minded less about being loved.
+
+His doubts on this point were soon settled.  The mind of Grimworth became
+obstinately set against him and his viands, and the new school being
+finished, the eating-room was closed.  If there had been no other reason,
+sympathy with the Palfreys, that respectable family who had lived in the
+parish time out of mind, would have determined all well-to-do people to
+decline Freely's goods.  Besides, he had absconded with his mother's
+guineas: who knew what else he had done, in Jamaica or elsewhere, before
+he came to Grimworth, worming himself into families under false
+pretences?  Females shuddered.  Dreadful suspicions gathered round him:
+his green eyes, his bow-legs had a criminal aspect.  The rector disliked
+the sight of a man who had imposed upon him; and all boys who could not
+afford to purchase, hooted "David Faux" as they passed his shop.
+Certainly no man now would pay anything for the "goodwill" of Mr.
+Freely's business, and he would be obliged to quit it without a peculium
+so desirable towards defraying the expense of moving.
+
+In a few months the shop in the market-place was again to let, and Mr.
+David Faux, alias Mr. Edward Freely, had gone--nobody at Grimworth knew
+whither.  In this way the demoralization of Grimworth women was checked.
+Young Mrs. Steene renewed her efforts to make light mince-pies, and
+having at last made a batch so excellent that Mr. Steene looked at her
+with complacency as he ate them, and said they were the best he had ever
+eaten in his life, she thought less of bulbuls and renegades ever after.
+The secrets of the finer cookery were revived in the breasts of matronly
+house-wives, and daughters were again anxious to be initiated in them.
+
+You will further, I hope, be glad to hear, that some purchases of drapery
+made by pretty Penny, in preparation for her marriage with Mr. Freely,
+came in quite as well for her wedding with young Towers as if they had
+been made expressly for the latter occasion.  For Penny's complexion had
+not altered, and blue always became it best.
+
+Here ends the story of Mr. David Faux, confectioner, and his brother
+Jacob.  And we see in it, I think, an admirable instance of the
+unexpected forms in which the great Nemesis hides herself.
+
+(1860)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER JACOB***
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diff --git a/old/2171.zip b/old/2171.zip
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+*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Brother Jacob, by George Eliot*
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+This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
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+
+
+
+BROTHER JACOB
+
+by George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+
+Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that
+of blindly taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been
+sufficiently considered.  How is the son of a British yeoman, who
+has been fed principally on salt pork and yeast dumplings, to know
+that there is satiety for the human stomach even in a paradise of
+glass jars full of sugared almonds and pink lozenges, and that the
+tedium of life can reach a pitch where plum-buns at discretion cease
+to offer the slightest excitement?  Or how, at the tender age when a
+confectioner seems to him a very prince whom all the world must
+envy--who breakfasts on macaroons, dines on meringues, sups on
+twelfth-cake, and fills up the intermediate hours with sugar-candy
+or peppermint--how is he to foresee the day of sad wisdom, when he
+will discern that the confectioner's calling is not socially
+influential, or favourable to a soaring ambition?  I have known a
+man who turned out to have a metaphysical genius, incautiously, in
+the period of youthful buoyancy, commence his career as a dancing-
+master; and you may imagine the use that was made of this initial
+mistake by opponents who felt themselves bound to warn the public
+against his doctrine of the Inconceivable.  He could not give up his
+dancing-lessons, because he made his bread by them, and metaphysics
+would not have found him in so much as salt to his bread.  It was
+really the same with Mr. David Faux and the confectionery business.
+His uncle, the butler at the great house close by Brigford, had made
+a pet of him in his early boyhood, and it was on a visit to this
+uncle that the confectioners' shops in that brilliant town had, on a
+single day, fired his tender imagination.  He carried home the
+pleasing illusion that a confectioner must be at once the happiest
+and the foremost of men, since the things he made were not only the
+most beautiful to behold, but the very best eating, and such as the
+Lord Mayor must always order largely for his private recreation; so
+that when his father declared he must be put to a trade, David chose
+his line without a moment's hesitation; and, with a rashness
+inspired by a sweet tooth, wedded himself irrevocably to
+confectionery.  Soon, however, the tooth lost its relish and fell
+into blank indifference; and all the while, his mind expanded, his
+ambition took new shapes, which could hardly be satisfied within the
+sphere his youthful ardour had chosen.  But what was he to do?  He
+was a young man of much mental activity, and, above all, gifted with
+a spirit of contrivance; but then, his faculties would not tell with
+great effect in any other medium than that of candied sugars,
+conserves, and pastry.  Say what you will about the identity of the
+reasoning process in all branches of thought, or about the advantage
+of coming to subjects with a fresh mind, the adjustment of butter to
+flour, and of heat to pastry, is NOT the best preparation for the
+office of prime minister; besides, in the present imperfectly-
+organized state of society, there are social barriers.  David could
+invent delightful things in the way of drop-cakes, and he had the
+widest views of the sugar department; but in other directions he
+certainly felt hampered by the want of knowledge and practical
+skill; and the world is so inconveniently constituted, that the
+vague consciousness of being a fine fellow is no guarantee of
+success in any line of business.
+
+This difficulty pressed with some severity on Mr. David Faux, even
+before his apprenticeship was ended.  His soul swelled with an
+impatient sense that he ought to become something very remarkable--
+that it was quite out of the question for him to put up with a
+narrow lot as other men did:  he scorned the idea that he could
+accept an average.  He was sure there was nothing average about him:
+even such a person as Mrs. Tibbits, the washer-woman, perceived it,
+and probably had a preference for his linen.  At that particular
+period he was weighing out gingerbread nuts; but such an anomaly
+could not continue.  No position could be suited to Mr. David Faux
+that was not in the highest degree easy to the flesh and flattering
+to the spirit.  If he had fallen on the present times, and enjoyed
+the advantages of a Mechanic's Institute, he would certainly have
+taken to literature and have written reviews; but his education had
+not been liberal.  He had read some novels from the adjoining
+circulating library, and had even bought the story of Inkle and
+Yarico, which had made him feel very sorry for poor Mr. Inkle; so
+that his ideas might not have been below a certain mark of the
+literary calling; but his spelling and diction were too
+unconventional.
+
+When a man is not adequately appreciated or comfortably placed in
+his own country, his thoughts naturally turn towards foreign climes;
+and David's imagination circled round and round the utmost limits of
+his geographical knowledge, in search of a country where a young
+gentleman of pasty visage, lipless mouth, and stumpy hair, would be
+likely to be received with the hospitable enthusiasm which he had a
+right to expect.  Having a general idea of America as a country
+where the population was chiefly black, it appeared to him the most
+propitious destination for an emigrant who, to begin with, had the
+broad and easily recognizable merit of whiteness; and this idea
+gradually took such strong possession of him that Satan seized the
+opportunity of suggesting to him that he might emigrate under easier
+circumstances, if he supplied himself with a little money from his
+master's till.  But that evil spirit, whose understanding, I am
+convinced, has been much overrated, quite wasted his time on this
+occasion.  David would certainly have liked well to have some of his
+master's money in his pocket, if he had been sure his master would
+have been the only man to suffer for it; but he was a cautious
+youth, and quite determined to run no risks on his own account.  So
+he stayed out his apprenticeship, and committed no act of dishonesty
+that was at all likely to be discovered, reserving his plan of
+emigration for a future opportunity.  And the circumstances under
+which he carried it out were in this wise.  Having been at home a
+week or two partaking of the family beans, he had used his leisure
+in ascertaining a fact which was of considerable importance to him,
+namely, that his mother had a small sum in guineas painfully saved
+from her maiden perquisites, and kept in the corner of a drawer
+where her baby-linen had reposed for the last twenty years--ever
+since her son David had taken to his feet, with a slight promise of
+bow-legs which had not been altogether unfulfilled.  Mr. Faux,
+senior, had told his son very frankly, that he must not look to
+being set up in business by HIM:  with seven sons, and one of them a
+very healthy and well-developed idiot, who consumed a dumpling about
+eight inches in diameter every day, it was pretty well if they got a
+hundred apiece at his death.  Under these circumstances, what was
+David to do?  It was certainly hard that he should take his mother's
+money; but he saw no other ready means of getting any, and it was
+not to be expected that a young man of his merit should put up with
+inconveniences that could be avoided.  Besides, it is not robbery to
+take property belonging to your mother:  she doesn't prosecute you.
+And David was very well behaved to his mother; he comforted her by
+speaking highly of himself to her, and assuring her that he never
+fell into the vices he saw practised by other youths of his own age,
+and that he was particularly fond of honesty.  If his mother would
+have given him her twenty guineas as a reward of this noble
+disposition, he really would not have stolen them from her, and it
+would have been more agreeable to his feelings.  Nevertheless, to an
+active mind like David's, ingenuity is not without its pleasures:
+it was rather an interesting occupation to become stealthily
+acquainted with the wards of his mother's simple key (not in the
+least like Chubb's patent), and to get one that would do its work
+equally well; and also to arrange a little drama by which he would
+escape suspicion, and run no risk of forfeiting the prospective
+hundred at his father's death, which would be convenient in the
+improbable case of his NOT making a large fortune in the "Indies."
+
+First, he spoke freely of his intention to start shortly for
+Liverpool and take ship for America; a resolution which cost his
+good mother some pain, for, after Jacob the idiot, there was not one
+of her sons to whom her heart clung more than to her youngest-born,
+David.  Next, it appeared to him that Sunday afternoon, when
+everybody was gone to church except Jacob and the cowboy, was so
+singularly favourable an opportunity for sons who wanted to
+appropriate their mothers' guineas, that he half thought it must
+have been kindly intended by Providence for such purposes.
+Especially the third Sunday in Lent; because Jacob had been out on
+one of his occasional wanderings for the last two days; and David,
+being a timid young man, had a considerable dread and hatred of
+Jacob, as of a large personage who went about habitually with a
+pitchfork in his hand.
+
+Nothing could be easier, then, than for David on this Sunday
+afternoon to decline going to church, on the ground that he was
+going to tea at Mr. Lunn's, whose pretty daughter Sally had been an
+early flame of his, and, when the church-goers were at a safe
+distance, to abstract the guineas from their wooden box and slip
+them into a small canvas bag--nothing easier than to call to the
+cowboy that he was going, and tell him to keep an eye on the house
+for fear of Sunday tramps.  David thought it would be easy, too, to
+get to a small thicket and bury his bag in a hole he had already
+made and covered up under the roots of an old hollow ash, and he
+had, in fact, found the hole without a moment's difficulty, had
+uncovered it, and was about gently to drop the bag into it, when the
+sound of a large body rustling towards him with something like a
+bellow was such a surprise to David, who, as a gentleman gifted with
+much contrivance, was naturally only prepared for what he expected,
+that instead of dropping the bag gently he let it fall so as to make
+it untwist and vomit forth the shining guineas.  In the same moment
+he looked up and saw his dear brother Jacob close upon him, holding
+the pitchfork so that the bright smooth prongs were a yard in
+advance of his own body, and about a foot off David's.  (A learned
+friend, to whom I once narrated this history, observed that it was
+David's guilt which made these prongs formidable, and that the "mens
+nil conscia sibi" strips a pitchfork of all terrors.  I thought this
+idea so valuable, that I obtained his leave to use it on condition
+of suppressing his name.)  Nevertheless, David did not entirely lose
+his presence of mind; for in that case he would have sunk on the
+earth or started backward; whereas he kept his ground and smiled at
+Jacob, who nodded his head up and down, and said, "Hoich, Zavy!" in
+a painfully equivocal manner.  David's heart was beating audibly,
+and if he had had any lips they would have been pale; but his mental
+activity, instead of being paralysed, was stimulated.  While he was
+inwardly praying (he always prayed when he was much frightened)--
+"Oh, save me this once, and I'll never get into danger again!"--he
+was thrusting his hand into his pocket in search of a box of yellow
+lozenges, which he had brought with him from Brigford among other
+delicacies of the same portable kind, as a means of conciliating
+proud beauty, and more particularly the beauty of Miss Sarah Lunn.
+Not one of these delicacies had he ever offered to poor Jacob, for
+David was not a young man to waste his jujubes and barley-sugar in
+giving pleasure to people from whom he expected nothing.  But an
+idiot with equivocal intentions and a pitchfork is as well worth
+flattering and cajoling as if he were Louis Napoleon.  So David,
+with a promptitude equal to the occasion, drew out his box of yellow
+lozenges, lifted the lid, and performed a pantomime with his mouth
+and fingers, which was meant to imply that he was delighted to see
+his dear brother Jacob, and seized the opportunity of making him a
+small present, which he would find particularly agreeable to the
+taste.  Jacob, you understand, was not an intense idiot, but within
+a certain limited range knew how to choose the good and reject the
+evil:  he took one lozenge, by way of test, and sucked it as if he
+had been a philosopher; then, in as great an ecstacy at its new and
+complex savour as Caliban at the taste of Trinculo's wine, chuckled
+and stroked this suddenly beneficent brother, and held out his hand
+for more; for, except in fits of anger, Jacob was not ferocious or
+needlessly predatory.  David's courage half returned, and he left
+off praying; pouring a dozen lozenges into Jacob's palm, and trying
+to look very fond of him.  He congratulated himself that he had
+formed the plan of going to see Miss Sally Lunn this afternoon, and
+that, as a consequence, he had brought with him these propitiatory
+delicacies:  he was certainly a lucky fellow; indeed, it was always
+likely Providence should be fonder of him than of other apprentices,
+and since he WAS to be interrupted, why, an idiot was preferable to
+any other sort of witness.  For the first time in his life, David
+thought he saw the advantage of idiots.
+
+As for Jacob, he had thrust his pitchfork into the ground, and had
+thrown himself down beside it, in thorough abandonment to the
+unprecedented pleasure of having five lozenges in his mouth at once,
+blinking meanwhile, and making inarticulate sounds of gustative
+content.  He had not yet given any sign of noticing the guineas, but
+in seating himself he had laid his broad right hand on them, and
+unconsciously kept it in that position, absorbed in the sensations
+of his palate.  If he could only be kept so occupied with the
+lozenges as not to see the guineas before David could manage to
+cover them!  That was David's best hope of safety; for Jacob knew
+his mother's guineas; it had been part of their common experience as
+boys to be allowed to look at these handsome coins, and rattle them
+in their box on high days and holidays, and among all Jacob's narrow
+experiences as to money, this was likely to be the most memorable.
+
+"Here, Jacob," said David, in an insinuating tone, handing the box
+to him, "I'll give 'em all to you.  Run!--make haste!--else
+somebody'll come and take 'em."
+
+David, not having studied the psychology of idiots, was not aware
+that they are not to be wrought upon by imaginative fears.  Jacob
+took the box with his left hand, but saw no necessity for running
+away.  Was ever a promising young man wishing to lay the foundation
+of his fortune by appropriating his mother's guineas obstructed by
+such a day-mare as this?  But the moment must come when Jacob would
+move his right hand to draw off the lid of the tin box, and then
+David would sweep the guineas into the hole with the utmost address
+and swiftness, and immediately seat himself upon them.  Ah, no!
+It's of no use to have foresight when you are dealing with an idiot:
+he is not to be calculated upon.  Jacob's right hand was given to
+vague clutching and throwing; it suddenly clutched the guineas as if
+they had been so many pebbles, and was raised in an attitude which
+promised to scatter them like seed over a distant bramble, when,
+from some prompting or other--probably of an unwonted sensation--it
+paused, descended to Jacob's knee, and opened slowly under the
+inspection of Jacob's dull eyes.  David began to pray again, but
+immediately desisted--another resource having occurred to him.
+
+"Mother! zinnies!" exclaimed the innocent Jacob.  Then, looking at
+David, he said, interrogatively, "Box?"
+
+"Hush! hush!" said David, summoning all his ingenuity in this severe
+strait.  "See, Jacob!"  He took the tin box from his brother's hand,
+and emptied it of the lozenges, returning half of them to Jacob, but
+secretly keeping the rest in his own hand.  Then he held out the
+empty box, and said, "Here's the box, Jacob!  The box for the
+guineas!" gently sweeping them from Jacob's palm into the box.
+
+This procedure was not objectionable to Jacob; on the contrary, the
+guineas clinked so pleasantly as they fell, that he wished for a
+repetition of the sound, and seizing the box, began to rattle it
+very gleefully.  David, seizing the opportunity, deposited his
+reserve of lozenges in the ground and hastily swept some earth over
+them.  "Look, Jacob!" he said, at last.  Jacob paused from his
+clinking, and looked into the hole, while David began to scratch
+away the earth, as if in doubtful expectation.  When the lozenges
+were laid bare, he took them out one by one, and gave them to Jacob.
+"Hush!" he said, in a loud whisper, "Tell nobody--all for Jacob--
+hush--sh--sh!  Put guineas in the hole--they'll come out like this!"
+To make the lesson more complete, he took a guinea, and lowering it
+into the hole, said, "Put in SO."  Then, as he took the last lozenge
+out, he said, "Come out SO," and put the lozenge into Jacob's
+hospitable mouth.
+
+Jacob turned his head on one side, looked first at his brother and
+then at the hole, like a reflective monkey, and, finally, laid the
+box of guineas in the hole with much decision.  David made haste to
+add every one of the stray coins, put on the lid, and covered it
+well with earth, saying in his meet coaxing tone -
+
+"Take 'm out to-morrow, Jacob; all for Jacob!  Hush--sh--sh!"
+
+Jacob, to whom this once indifferent brother had all at once become
+a sort of sweet-tasted fetish, stroked David's best coat with his
+adhesive fingers, and then hugged him with an accompaniment of that
+mingled chuckling and gurgling by which he was accustomed to express
+the milder passions.  But if he had chosen to bite a small morsel
+out of his beneficent brother's cheek, David would have been obliged
+to bear it.
+
+And here I must pause, to point out to you the short-sightedness of
+human contrivance.  This ingenious young man, Mr. David Faux,
+thought he had achieved a triumph of cunning when he had associated
+himself in his brother's rudimentary mind with the flavour of yellow
+lozenges.  But he had yet to learn that it is a dreadful thing to
+make an idiot fond of you, when you yourself are not of an
+affectionate disposition:  especially an idiot with a pitchfork--
+obviously a difficult friend to shake off by rough usage.
+
+It may seem to you rather a blundering contrivance for a clever
+young man to bury the guineas.  But, if everything had turned out as
+David had calculated, you would have seen that his plan was worthy
+of his talents.  The guineas would have lain safely in the earth
+while the theft was discovered, and David, with the calm of
+conscious innocence, would have lingered at home, reluctant to say
+good-bye to his dear mother while she was in grief about her
+guineas; till at length, on the eve of his departure, he would have
+disinterred them in the strictest privacy, and carried them on his
+own person without inconvenience.  But David, you perceive, had
+reckoned without his host, or, to speak more precisely, without his
+idiot brother--an item of so uncertain and fluctuating a character,
+that I doubt whether he would not have puzzled the astute heroes of
+M. de Balzac, whose foresight is so remarkably at home in the
+future.
+
+It was clear to David now that he had only one alternative before
+him:  he must either renounce the guineas, by quietly putting them
+back in his mother's drawer (a course not unattended with
+difficulty); or he must leave more than a suspicion behind him, by
+departing early the next morning without giving notice, and with the
+guineas in his pocket.  For if he gave notice that he was going, his
+mother, he knew, would insist on fetching from her box of guineas
+the three she had always promised him as his share; indeed, in his
+original plan, he had counted on this as a means by which the theft
+would be discovered under circumstances that would themselves speak
+for his innocence; but now, as I need hardly explain, that well-
+combined plan was completely frustrated.  Even if David could have
+bribed Jacob with perpetual lozenges, an idiot's secrecy is itself
+betrayal.  He dared not even go to tea at Mr. Lunn's, for in that
+case he would have lost sight of Jacob, who, in his impatience for
+the crop of lozenges, might scratch up the box again while he was
+absent, and carry it home--depriving him at once of reputation and
+guineas.  No! he must think of nothing all the rest of this day, but
+of coaxing Jacob and keeping him out of mischief.  It was a
+fatiguing and anxious evening to David; nevertheless, he dared not
+go to sleep without tying a piece of string to his thumb and great
+toe, to secure his frequent waking; for he meant to be up with the
+first peep of dawn, and be far out of reach before breakfast-time.
+His father, he thought, would certainly cut him off with a shilling;
+but what then?  Such a striking young man as he would be sure to be
+well received in the West Indies:  in foreign countries there are
+always openings--even for cats.  It was probable that some Princess
+Yarico would want him to marry her, and make him presents of very
+large jewels beforehand; after which, he needn't marry her unless he
+liked.  David had made up his mind not to steal any more, even from
+people who were fond of him:  it was an unpleasant way of making
+your fortune in a world where you were likely to surprised in the
+act by brothers.  Such alarms did not agree with David's
+constitution, and he had felt so much nausea this evening that no
+doubt his liver was affected.  Besides, he would have been greatly
+hurt not to be thought well of in the world:  he always meant to
+make a figure, and be thought worthy of the best seats and the best
+morsels.
+
+Ruminating to this effect on the brilliant future in reserve for
+him, David by the help of his check-string kept himself on the alert
+to seize the time of earliest dawn for his rising and departure.
+His brothers, of course, were early risers, but he should anticipate
+them by at least an hour and a half, and the little room which he
+had to himself as only an occasional visitor, had its window over
+the horse-block, so that he could slip out through the window
+without the least difficulty.  Jacob, the horrible Jacob, had an
+awkward trick of getting up before everybody else, to stem his
+hunger by emptying the milk-bowl that was "duly set" for him; but of
+late he had taken to sleeping in the hay-loft, and if he came into
+the house, it would be on the opposite side to that from which David
+was making his exit.  There was no need to think of Jacob; yet David
+was liberal enough to bestow a curse on him--it was the only thing
+he ever did bestow gratuitously.  His small bundle of clothes was
+ready packed, and he was soon treading lightly on the steps of the
+horse-block, soon walking at a smart pace across the fields towards
+the thicket.  It would take him no more than two minutes to get out
+the box; he could make out the tree it was under by the pale strip
+where the bark was off, although the dawning light was rather dimmer
+in the thicket.  But what, in the name of--burnt pastry--was that
+large body with a staff planted beside it, close at the foot of the
+ash-tree?  David paused, not to make up his mind as to the nature of
+the apparition--he had not the happiness of doubting for a moment
+that the staff was Jacob's pitchfork--but to gather the self-command
+necessary for addressing his brother with a sufficiently honeyed
+accent.  Jacob was absorbed in scratching up the earth, and had not
+heard David's approach.
+
+"I say, Jacob," said David in a loud whisper, just as the tin box
+was lifted out of the hole.
+
+Jacob looked up, and discerning his sweet-flavoured brother, nodded
+and grinned in the dim light in a way that made him seem to David
+like a triumphant demon.  If he had been of an impetuous
+disposition, he would have snatched the pitchfork from the ground
+and impaled this fraternal demon.  But David was by no means
+impetuous; he was a young man greatly given to calculate
+consequences, a habit which has been held to be the foundation of
+virtue.  But somehow it had not precisely that effect in David:  he
+calculated whether an action would harm himself, or whether it would
+only harm other people.  In the former case he was very timid about
+satisfying his immediate desires, but in the latter he would risk
+the result with much courage.
+
+"Give it me, Jacob," he said, stooping down and patting his brother.
+"Let us see."
+
+Jacob, finding the lid rather tight, gave the box to his brother in
+perfect faith.  David raised the lids and shook his head, while
+Jacob put his finger in and took out a guinea to taste whether the
+metamorphosis into lozenges was complete and satisfactory.
+
+"No, Jacob; too soon, too soon," said David, when the guinea had
+been tasted.  "Give it me; we'll go and bury it somewhere else;
+we'll put it in yonder," he added, pointing vaguely toward the
+distance.
+
+David screwed on the lid, while Jacob, looking grave, rose and
+grasped his pitchfork.  Then, seeing David's bundle, he snatched it,
+like a too officious Newfoundland, stuck his pitchfork into it and
+carried it over his shoulder in triumph as he accompanied David and
+the box out of the thicket.
+
+What on earth was David to do?  It would have been easy to frown at
+Jacob, and kick him, and order him to get away; but David dared as
+soon have kicked the bull.  Jacob was quiet as long as he was
+treated indulgently; but on the slightest show of anger, he became
+unmanageable, and was liable to fits of fury which would have made
+him formidable even without his pitchfork.  There was no mastery to
+be obtained over him except by kindness or guile.  David tried
+guile.
+
+"Go, Jacob," he said, when they were out of the thicket--pointing
+towards the house as he spoke; "go and fetch me a spade--a spade.
+But give ME the bundle," he added, trying to reach it from the fork,
+where it hung high above Jacob's tall shoulder.
+
+But Jacob showed as much alacrity in obeying as a wasp shows in
+leaving a sugar-basin.  Near David, he felt himself in the vicinity
+of lozenges:  he chuckled and rubbed his brother's back, brandishing
+the bundle higher out of reach.  David, with an inward groan,
+changed his tactics, and walked on as fast as he could.  It was not
+safe to linger.  Jacob would get tired of following him, or, at all
+events, could be eluded.  If they could once get to the distant
+highroad, a coach would overtake them, David would mount it, having
+previously by some ingenious means secured his bundle, and then
+Jacob might howl and flourish his pitchfork as much as he liked.
+Meanwhile he was under the fatal necessity of being very kind to
+this ogre, and of providing a large breakfast for him when they
+stopped at a roadside inn.  It was already three hours since they
+had started, and David was tired.  Would no coach be coming up soon?
+he inquired.  No coach for the next two hours.  But there was a
+carrier's cart to come immediately, on its way to the next town.  If
+he could slip out, even leaving his bundle behind, and get into the
+cart without Jacob!  But there was a new obstacle.  Jacob had
+recently discovered a remnant of sugar-candy in one of his brother's
+tail-pockets; and, since then, had cautiously kept his hold on that
+limb of the garment, perhaps with an expectation that there would be
+a further development of sugar-candy after a longer or shorter
+interval.  Now every one who has worn a coat will understand the
+sensibilities that must keep a man from starting away in a hurry
+when there is a grasp on his coat-tail.  David looked forward to
+being well received among strangers, but it might make a difference
+if he had only one tail to his coat.
+
+He felt himself in a cold perspiration.  He could walk no more:  he
+must get into the cart and let Jacob get in with him.  Presently a
+cheering idea occurred to him:  after so large a breakfast, Jacob
+would be sure to go to sleep in the cart; you see at once that David
+meant to seize his bundle, jump out, and be free.  His expectation
+was partly fulfilled:  Jacob did go to sleep in the cart, but it was
+in a peculiar attitude--it was with his arms tightly fastened round
+his dear brother's body; and if ever David attempted to move, the
+grasp tightened with the force of an affectionate boa-constrictor.
+
+"Th' innicent's fond on you," observed the carrier, thinking that
+David was probably an amiable brother, and wishing to pay him a
+compliment.
+
+David groaned.  The ways of thieving were not ways of pleasantness.
+Oh, why had he an idiot brother?  Oh, why, in general, was the world
+so constituted that a man could not take his mother's guineas
+comfortably?  David became grimly speculative.
+
+Copious dinner at noon for Jacob; but little dinner, because little
+appetite, for David.  Instead of eating, he plied Jacob with beer;
+for through this liberality he descried a hope.  Jacob fell into a
+dead sleep, at last, without having his arms round David, who paid
+the reckoning, took his bundle, and walked off.  In another half-
+hour he was on the coach on his way to Liverpool, smiling the smile
+of the triumphant wicked.  He was rid of Jacob--he was bound for the
+Indies, where a gullible princess awaited him.  He would never steal
+any more, but there would be no need; he would show himself so
+deserving, that people would make him presents freely.  He must give
+up the notion of his father's legacy; but it was not likely he would
+ever want that trifle; and even if he did--why, it was a
+compensation to think that in being for ever divided from his family
+he was divided from Jacob, more terrible than Gorgon or Demogorgon
+to David's timid green eyes.  Thank heaven, he should never see
+Jacob any more!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+
+It was nearly six years after the departure of Mr. David Faux for
+the West Indies, that the vacant shop in the marketplace at
+Grimworth was understood to have been let to the stranger with a
+sallow complexion and a buff cravat, whose first appearance had
+caused some excitement in the bar of the Woolpack, where he had
+called to wait for the coach.
+
+Grimworth, to a discerning eye, was a good place to set up
+shopkeeping in.  There was no competition in it at present; the
+Church-people had their own grocer and draper; the Dissenters had
+theirs; and the two or three butchers found a ready market for their
+joints without strict reference to religious persuasion--except that
+the rector's wife had given a general order for the veal sweet-
+breads and the mutton kidneys, while Mr. Rodd, the Baptist minister,
+had requested that, so far as was compatible with the fair
+accommodation of other customers, the sheep's trotters might be
+reserved for him.  And it was likely to be a growing place, for the
+trustees of Mr. Zephaniah Crypt's Charity, under the stimulus of a
+late visitation by commissioners, were beginning to apply long-
+accumulating funds to the rebuilding of the Yellow Coat School,
+which was henceforth to be carried forward on a greatly-extended
+scale, the testator having left no restrictions concerning the
+curriculum, but only concerning the coat.
+
+The shopkeepers at Grimworth were by no means unanimous as to the
+advantages promised by this prospect of increased population and
+trading, being substantial men, who liked doing a quiet business in
+which they were sure of their customers, and could calculate their
+returns to a nicety.  Hitherto, it had been held a point of honour
+by the families in Grimworth parish, to buy their sugar and their
+flannel at the shop where their fathers and mothers had bought
+before them; but, if newcomers were to bring in the system of neck-
+and-neck trading, and solicit feminine eyes by gown-pieces laid in
+fan-like folds, and surmounted by artificial flowers, giving them a
+factitious charm (for on what human figure would a gown sit like a
+fan, or what female head was like a bunch of China-asters?), or, if
+new grocers were to fill their windows with mountains of currants
+and sugar, made seductive by contrast and tickets,--what security
+was there for Grimworth, that a vagrant spirit in shopping, once
+introduced, would not in the end carry the most important families
+to the larger market town of Cattleton, where, business being done
+on a system of small profits and quick returns, the fashions were of
+the freshest, and goods of all kinds might be bought at an
+advantage?
+
+With this view of the times predominant among the tradespeople at
+Grimworth, their uncertainty concerning the nature of the business
+which the sallow-complexioned stranger was about to set up in the
+vacant shop, naturally gave some additional strength to the fears of
+the less sanguine.  If he was going to sell drapery, it was probable
+that a pale-faced fellow like that would deal in showy and inferior
+articles--printed cottons and muslins which would leave their dye in
+the wash-tub, jobbed linen full of knots, and flannel that would
+soon look like gauze.  If grocery, then it was to be hoped that no
+mother of a family would trust the teas of an untried grocer.  Such
+things had been known in some parishes as tradesmen going about
+canvassing for custom with cards in their pockets:  when people came
+from nobody knew where, there was no knowing what they might do.  It
+was a thousand pities that Mr. Moffat, the auctioneer and broker,
+had died without leaving anybody to follow him in the business, and
+Mrs. Cleve's trustee ought to have known better than to let a shop
+to a stranger.  Even the discovery that ovens were being put up on
+the premises, and that the shop was, in fact, being fitted up for a
+confectioner and pastry-cook's business, hitherto unknown in
+Grimworth, did not quite suffice to turn the scale in the newcomer's
+favour, though the landlady at the Woolpack defended him warmly,
+said he seemed to be a very clever young man, and from what she
+could make out, came of a very good family; indeed, was most likely
+a good many people's betters.
+
+It certainly made a blaze of light and colour, almost as if a
+rainbow had suddenly descended into the marketplace, when, one fine
+morning, the shutters were taken down from the new shop, and the two
+windows displayed their decorations.  On one side, there were the
+variegated tints of collared and marbled meats, set off by bright
+green leaves, the pale brown of glazed pies, the rich tones of
+sauces and bottled fruits enclosed in their veil of glass--
+altogether a sight to bring tears into the eyes of a Dutch painter;
+and on the other, there was a predominance of the more delicate hues
+of pink, and white, and yellow, and buff, in the abundant lozenges,
+candies, sweet biscuits and icings, which to the eyes of a bilious
+person might easily have been blended into a faery landscape in
+Turner's latest style.  What a sight to dawn upon the eyes of
+Grimworth children!  They almost forgot to go to their dinner that
+day, their appetites being preoccupied with imaginary sugar-plums;
+and I think even Punch, setting up his tabernacle in the market-
+place, would not have succeeded in drawing them away from those
+shop-windows, where they stood according to gradations of size and
+strength, the biggest and strongest being nearest the window, and
+the little ones in the outermost rows lifting wide-open eyes and
+mouths towards the upper tier of jars, like small birds at meal-
+time.
+
+The elder inhabitants pished and pshawed a little at the folly of
+the new shopkeeper in venturing on such an outlay in goods that
+would not keep; to be sure, Christmas was coming, but what housewife
+in Grimworth would not think shame to furnish forth her table with
+articles that were not home-cooked?  No, no.  Mr. Edward Freely, as
+he called himself, was deceived, if he thought Grimworth money was
+to flow into his pockets on such terms.
+
+Edward Freely was the name that shone in gilt letters on a mazarine
+ground over the doorplace of the new shop--a generous-sounding name,
+that might have belonged to the open-hearted, improvident hero of an
+old comedy, who would have delighted in raining sugared almonds,
+like a new manna-gift, among that small generation outside the
+windows.  But Mr. Edward Freely was a man whose impulses were kept
+in due subordination:  he held that the desire for sweets and pastry
+must only be satisfied in a direct ratio with the power of paying
+for them.  If the smallest child in Grimworth would go to him with a
+halfpenny in its tiny fist, he would, after ringing the halfpenny,
+deliver a just equivalent in "rock."  He was not a man to cheat even
+the smallest child--he often said so, observing at the same time
+that he loved honesty, and also that he was very tender-hearted,
+though he didn't show his feelings as some people did.
+
+Either in reward of such virtue, or according to some more hidden
+law of sequence, Mr. Freely's business, in spite of prejudice,
+started under favourable auspices.  For Mrs. Chaloner, the rector's
+wife, was among the earliest customers at the shop, thinking it only
+right to encourage a new parishioner who had made a decorous
+appearance at church; and she found Mr. Freely a most civil,
+obliging young man, and intelligent to a surprising degree for a
+confectioner; well-principled, too, for in giving her useful hints
+about choosing sugars he had thrown much light on the dishonesty of
+other tradesmen.  Moreover, he had been in the West Indies, and had
+seen the very estate which had been her poor grandfather's property;
+and he said the missionaries were the only cause of the negro's
+discontent--an observing young man, evidently.  Mrs. Chaloner
+ordered wine-biscuits and olives, and gave Mr. Freely to understand
+that she should find his shop a great convenience.  So did the
+doctor's wife, and so did Mrs. Gate, at the large carding-mill, who,
+having high connexions frequently visiting her, might be expected to
+have a large consumption of ratafias and macaroons.
+
+The less aristocratic matrons of Grimworth seemed likely at first to
+justify their husbands' confidence that they would never pay a
+percentage of profits on drop-cakes, instead of making their own, or
+get up a hollow show of liberal housekeeping by purchasing slices of
+collared meat when a neighbour came in for supper.  But it is my
+task to narrate the gradual corruption of Grimworth manners from
+their primitive simplicity--a melancholy task, if it were not
+cheered by the prospect of the fine peripateia or downfall by which
+the progress of the corruption was ultimately checked.
+
+It was young Mrs. Steene, the veterinary surgeons wife, who first
+gave way to temptation.  I fear she had been rather over-educated
+for her station in life, for she knew by heart many passages in
+Lalla Rookh, the Corsair, and the Siege of Corinth, which had given
+her a distaste for domestic occupations, and caused her a withering
+disappointment at the discovery that Mr. Steene, since his marriage,
+had lost all interest in the "bulbul," openly preferred discussing
+the nature of spavin with a coarse neighbour, and was angry if the
+pudding turned out watery--indeed, was simply a top-booted "vet.",
+who came in hungry at dinner-time; and not in the least like a
+nobleman turned Corsair out of pure scorn for his race, or like a
+renegade with a turban and crescent, unless it were in the
+irritability of his temper.  And scorn is such a very different
+thing in top-boots!
+
+This brutal man had invited a supper-party for Christmas eve, when
+he would expect to see mince-pies on the table.  Mrs. Steene had
+prepared her mince-meat, and had devoted much butter, fine flour,
+and labour, to the making of a batch of pies in the morning; but
+they proved to be so very heavy when they came out of the oven, that
+she could only think with trembling of the moment when her husband
+should catch sight of them on the supper-table.  He would storm at
+her, she was certain; and before all the company; and then she
+should never help crying:  it was so dreadful to think she had come
+to that, after the bulbul and everything!  Suddenly the thought
+darted through her mind that THIS ONCE she might send for a dish of
+mince-pies from Freely's:  she knew he had some.  But what was to
+become of the eighteen heavy mince-pies?  Oh, it was of no use
+thinking about that; it was very expensive--indeed, making mince-
+pies at all was a great expense, when they were not sure to turn out
+well:  it would be much better to buy them ready-made.  You paid a
+little more for them, but there was no risk of waste.
+
+Such was the sophistry with which this misguided young woman--
+enough.  Mrs. Steene sent for the mince-pies, and, I am grieved to
+add, garbled her household accounts in order to conceal the fact
+from her husband.  This was the second step in a downward course,
+all owing to a young woman's being out of harmony with her
+circumstances, yearning after renegades and bulbuls, and being
+subject to claims from a veterinary surgeon fond of mince-pies.  The
+third step was to harden herself by telling the fact of the bought
+mince-pies to her intimate friend Mrs. Mole, who had already guessed
+it, and who subsequently encouraged herself in buying a mould of
+jelly, instead of exerting her own skill, by the reflection that
+"other people" did the same sort of thing.  The infection spread;
+soon there was a party or clique in Grimworth on the side of "buying
+at Freely's"; and many husbands, kept for some time in the dark on
+this point, innocently swallowed at two mouthfuls a tart on which
+they were paying a profit of a hundred per cent., and as innocently
+encouraged a fatal disingenuousness in the partners of their bosoms
+by praising the pastry.  Others, more keen-sighted, winked at the
+too frequent presentation on washing-days, and at impromptu suppers,
+of superior spiced-beef, which flattered their palates more than the
+cold remnants they had formerly been contented with.  Every
+housewife who had once "bought at Freely's" felt a secret joy when
+she detected a similar perversion in her neighbour's practice, and
+soon only two or three old-fashioned mistresses of families held out
+in the protest against the growing demoralization, saying to their
+neighbours who came to sup with them, "I can't offer you Freely's
+beef, or Freely's cheesecakes; everything in our house is home-made;
+I'm afraid you'll hardly have any appetite for our plain pastry."
+The doctor, whose cook was not satisfactory, the curate, who kept no
+cook, and the mining agent, who was a great bon vivant, even began
+to rely on Freely for the greater part of their dinner, when they
+wished to give an entertainment of some brilliancy.  In short, the
+business of manufacturing the more fanciful viands was fast passing
+out of the hinds of maids and matrons in private families, and was
+becoming the work of a special commercial organ.
+
+I am not ignorant that this sort of thing is called the inevitable
+course of civilization, division of labour, and so forth, and that
+the maids and matrons may be said to have had their hands set free
+from cookery to add to the wealth of society in some other way.
+Only it happened at Grimworth, which, to be sure, was a low place,
+that the maids and matrons could do nothing with their hands at all
+better than cooking:  not even those who had always made heavy cakes
+and leathery pastry.  And so it came to pass, that the progress of
+civilization at Grimworth was not otherwise apparent than in the
+impoverishment of men, the gossiping idleness of women, and the
+heightening prosperity of Mr. Edward Freely.
+
+The Yellow Coat School was a double source of profit to the
+calculating confectioner; for he opened an eating-room for the
+superior workmen employed on the new school, and he accommodated the
+pupils at the old school by giving great attention to the fancy-
+sugar department.  When I think of the sweet-tasted swans and other
+ingenious white shapes crunched by the small teeth of that rising
+generation, I am glad to remember that a certain amount of
+calcareous food has been held good for young creatures whose bones
+are not quite formed; for I have observed these delicacies to have
+an inorganic flavour which would have recommended them greatly to
+that young lady of the Spectator's acquaintance who habitually made
+her dessert on the stems of tobacco-pipes.
+
+As for the confectioner himself, he made his way gradually into
+Grimworth homes, as his commodities did, in spite of some initial
+repugnance.  Somehow or other, his reception as a guest seemed a
+thing that required justifying, like the purchasing of his pastry.
+In the first place, he was a stranger, and therefore open to
+suspicion; secondly, the confectionery business was so entirely new
+at Grimworth, that its place in the scale of rank had not been
+distinctly ascertained.  There was no doubt about drapers and
+grocers, when they came of good old Grimworth families, like Mr.
+Luff and Mr. Prettyman:  they visited with the Palfreys, who farmed
+their own land, played many a game at whist with the doctor, and
+condescended a little towards the timber-merchant, who had lately
+taken to the coal-trade also, and had got new furniture; but whether
+a confectioner should be admitted to this higher level of
+respectability, or should be understood to find his associates among
+butchers and bakers, was a new question on which tradition threw no
+light.  His being a bachelor was in his favour, and would perhaps
+have been enough to turn the scale, even if Mr. Edward Freely's
+other personal pretensions had been of an entirely insignificant
+cast.  But so far from this, it very soon appeared that he was a
+remarkable young man, who had been in the West Indies, and had seen
+many wonders by sea and land, so that he could charm the ears of
+Grimworth Desdemonas with stories of strange fishes, especially
+sharks, which he had stabbed in the nick of time by bravely plunging
+overboard just as the monster was turning on his side to devour the
+cook's mate; of terrible fevers which he had undergone in a land
+where the wind blows from all quarters at once; of rounds of toast
+cut straight from the breadfruit trees; of toes bitten off by land-
+crabs; of large honours that had been offered to him as a man who
+knew what was what, and was therefore particularly needed in a
+tropical climate; and of a Creole heiress who had wept bitterly at
+his departure.  Such conversational talents as these, we know, will
+overcome disadvantages of complexion; and young Towers, whose cheeks
+were of the finest pink, set off by a fringe of dark whisker, was
+quite eclipsed by the presence of the sallow Mr. Freely.  So
+exceptional a confectioner elevated the business, and might well
+begin to make disengaged hearts flutter a little.
+
+Fathers and mothers were naturally more slow and cautious in their
+recognition of the new-comer's merits.
+
+"He's an amusing fellow," said Mr. Prettyman, the highly respectable
+grocer.  (Mrs. Prettyman was a Miss Fothergill, and her sister had
+married a London mercer.)  "He's an amusing fellow; and I've no
+objection to his making one at the Oyster Club; but he's a bit too
+fond of riding the high horse.  He's uncommonly knowing, I'll allow;
+but how came he to go to the Indies?  I should like that answered.
+It's unnatural in a confectioner.  I'm not fond of people that have
+been beyond seas, if they can't give a good account how they
+happened to go.  When folks go so far off, it's because they've got
+little credit nearer home--that's my opinion.  However, he's got
+some good rum; but I don't want to be hand and glove with him, for
+all that."
+
+It was this kind of dim suspicion which beclouded the view of Mr.
+Freely's qualities in the maturer minds of Grimworth through the
+early months of his residence there.  But when the confectioner
+ceased to be a novelty, the suspicions also ceased to be novel, and
+people got tired of hinting at them, especially as they seemed to be
+refuted by his advancing prosperity and importance.  Mr. Freely was
+becoming a person of influence in the parish; he was found useful as
+an overseer of the poor, having great firmness in enduring other
+people's pain, which firmness, he said, was due to his great
+benevolence; he always did what was good for people in the end.  Mr.
+Chaloner had even selected him as clergyman's churchwarden, for he
+was a very handy man, and much more of Mr. Chaloner's opinion in
+everything about church business than the older parishioners.  Mr.
+Freely was a very regular churchman, but at the Oyster Club he was
+sometimes a little free in his conversation, more than hinting at a
+life of Sultanic self-indulgence which he had passed in the West
+Indies, shaking his head now and then and smiling rather bitterly,
+as men are wont to do when they intimate that they have become a
+little too wise to be instructed about a world which has long been
+flat and stale to them.
+
+For some time he was quite general in his attentions to the fair
+sex, combining the gallantries of a lady's man with a severity of
+criticism on the person and manners of absent belles, which tended
+rather to stimulate in the feminine breast the desire to conquer the
+approval of so fastidious a judge.  Nothing short of the very best
+in the department of female charms and virtues could suffice to
+kindle the ardour of Mr. Edward Freely, who had become familiar with
+the most luxuriant and dazzling beauty in the West Indies.  It may
+seem incredible that a confectioner should have ideas and
+conversation so much resembling those to be met with in a higher
+walk of life, but it must be remembered that he had not merely
+travelled, he had also bow-legs and a sallow, small-featured visage,
+so that nature herself had stamped him for a fastidious connoisseur
+of the fair sex.
+
+At last, however, it seemed clear that Cupid had found a sharper
+arrow than usual, and that Mr. Freely's heart was pierced.  It was
+the general talk among the young people at Grimworth.  But was it
+really love, and not rather ambition?  Miss Fullilove, the timber-
+merchant's daughter, was quite sure that if SHE were Miss Penny
+Palfrey, she would be cautious; it was not a good sign when men
+looked so much above themselves for a wife.  For it was no less a
+person than Miss Penelope Palfrey, second daughter of the Mr.
+Palfrey who farmed his own land, that had attracted Mr. Freely's
+peculiar regard, and conquered his fastidiousness; and no wonder,
+for the Ideal, as exhibited in the finest waxwork, was perhaps never
+so closely approached by the Real as in the person of the pretty
+Penelope.  Her yellowish flaxen hair did not curl naturally, I
+admit, but its bright crisp ringlets were such smooth, perfect
+miniature tubes, that you would have longed to pass your little
+finger through them, and feel their soft elasticity.  She wore them
+in a crop, for in those days, when society was in a healthier state,
+young ladies wore crops long after they were twenty, and Penelope
+was not yet nineteen.  Like the waxen ideal, she had round blue
+eyes, and round nostrils in her little nose, and teeth such as the
+ideal would be seen to have, if it ever showed them.  Altogether,
+she was a small, round thing, as neat as a pink and white double
+daisy, and as guileless; for I hope it does not argue guile in a
+pretty damsel of nineteen, to think that she should like to have a
+beau and be "engaged," when her elder sister had already been in
+that position a year and a half.  To be sure, there was young Towers
+always coming to the house; but Penny felt convinced he only came to
+see her brother, for he never had anything to say to her, and never
+offered her his arm, and was as awkward and silent as possible.
+
+It is not unlikely that Mr. Freely had early been smitten by Penny's
+charms, as brought under his observation at church, but he had to
+make his way in society a little before he could come into nearer
+contact with them; and even after he was well received in Grimworth
+families, it was a long while before he could converse with Penny
+otherwise than in an incidental meeting at Mr. Luff's.  It was not
+so easy to get invited to Long Meadows, the residence of the
+Palfreys; for though Mr. Palfrey had been losing money of late
+years, not being able quite to recover his feet after the terrible
+murrain which forced him to borrow, his family were far from
+considering themselves on the same level even as the old-established
+tradespeople with whom they visited.  The greatest people, even
+kings and queens, must visit with somebody, and the equals of the
+great are scarce.  They were especially scarce at Grimworth, which,
+as I have before observed, was a low parish, mentioned with the most
+scornful brevity in gazetteers.  Even the great people there were
+far behind those of their own standing in other parts of this realm.
+Mr. Palfrey's farmyard doors had the paint all worn off them, and
+the front garden walks had long been merged in a general weediness.
+Still, his father had been called Squire Palfrey, and had been
+respected by the last Grimworth generation as a man who could afford
+to drink too much in his own house.
+
+Pretty Penny was not blind to the fact that Mr. Freely admired her,
+and she felt sure that it was he who had sent her a beautiful
+valentine; but her sister seemed to think so lightly of him (all
+young ladies think lightly of the gentlemen to whom they are not
+engaged), that Penny never dared mention him, and trembled and
+blushed whenever they met him, thinking of the valentine, which was
+very strong in its expressions, and which she felt guilty of knowing
+by heart.  A man who had been to the Indies, and knew the sea so
+well, seemed to her a sort of public character, almost like Robinson
+Crusoe or Captain Cook; and Penny had always wished her husband to
+be a remarkable personage, likely to be put in Mangnall's Questions,
+with which register of the immortals she had become acquainted
+during her one year at a boarding-school.  Only it seemed strange
+that a remarkable man should be a confectioner and pastry-cook, and
+this anomaly quite disturbed Penny's dreams.  Her brothers, she
+knew, laughed at men who couldn't sit on horseback well, and called
+them tailors; but her brothers were very rough, and were quite
+without that power of anecdote which made Mr. Freely such a
+delightful companion.  He was a very good man, she thought, for she
+had heard him say at Mr. Luff's, one day, that he always wished to
+do his duty in whatever state of life he might be placed; and he
+knew a great deal of poetry, for one day he had repeated a verse of
+a song.  She wondered if he had made the words of the valentine!--it
+ended in this way:-
+
+
+"Without thee, it is pain to live,
+But with thee, it were sweet to die."
+
+
+Poor Mr. Freely! her father would very likely object--she felt sure
+he would, for he always called Mr. Freely "that sugar-plum fellow."
+Oh, it was very cruel, when true love was crossed in that way, and
+all because Mr. Freely was a confectioner:  well, Penny would be
+true to him, for all that, and since his being a confectioner gave
+her an opportunity of showing her faithfulness, she was glad of it.
+Edward Freely was a pretty name, much better than John Towers.
+Young Towers had offered her a rose out of his button-hole the other
+day, blushing very much; but she refused it, and thought with
+delight how much Mr. Freely would be comforted if he knew her
+firmness of mind.
+
+Poor little Penny! the days were so very long among the daisies on a
+grazing farm, and thought is so active--how was it possible that the
+inward drama should not get the start of the outward?  I have known
+young ladies, much better educated, and with an outward world
+diversified by instructive lectures, to say nothing of literature
+and highly-developed fancy-work, who have spun a cocoon of visionary
+joys and sorrows for themselves, just as Penny did.  Her elder
+sister Letitia, who had a prouder style of beauty, and a more
+worldly ambition, was engaged to a wool-factor, who came all the way
+from Cattelton to see her; and everybody knows that a wool-factor
+takes a very high rank, sometimes driving a double-bodied gig.
+Letty's notions got higher every day, and Penny never dared to speak
+of her cherished griefs to her lofty sister--never dared to propose
+that they should call at Mr. Freely's to buy liquorice, though she
+had prepared for such an incident by mentioning a slight sore
+throat.  So she had to pass the shop on the other side of the
+market-place, and reflect, with a suppressed sigh, that behind those
+pink and white jars somebody was thinking of her tenderly,
+unconscious of the small space that divided her from him.
+
+And it was quite true that, when business permitted, Mr. Freely
+thought a great deal of Penny.  He thought her prettiness comparable
+to the loveliest things in confectionery; he judged her to be of
+submissive temper--likely to wait upon him as well as if she had
+been a negress, and to be silently terrified when his liver made him
+irritable; and he considered the Palfrey family quite the best in
+the parish, possessing marriageable daughters.  On the whole, he
+thought her worthy to become Mrs. Edward Freely, and all the more
+so, because it would probably require some ingenuity to win her.
+Mr. Palfrey was capable of horse-whipping a too rash pretender to
+his daughter's hand; and, moreover, he had three tall sons:  it was
+clear that a suitor would be at a disadvantage with such a family,
+unless travel and natural acumen had given him a countervailing
+power of contrivance.  And the first idea that occurred to him in
+the matter was, that Mr. Palfrey would object less if he knew that
+the Freelys were a much higher family than his own.  It had been
+foolish modesty in him hitherto to conceal the fact that a branch of
+the Freelys held a manor in Yorkshire, and to shut up the portrait
+of his great uncle the admiral, instead of hanging it up where a
+family portrait should be hung--over the mantelpiece in the parlour.
+Admiral Freely, K.C.B., once placed in this conspicuous position,
+was seen to have had one arm only, and one eye--in these points
+resembling the heroic Nelson--while a certain pallid insignificance
+of feature confirmed the relationship between himself and his grand-
+nephew.
+
+Next, Mr. Freely was seized with an irrepressible ambition to posses
+Mrs. Palfrey's receipt for brawn, hers being pronounced on all hands
+to be superior to his own--as he informed her in a very flattering
+letter carried by his errand-boy.  Now Mrs. Palfrey, like other
+geniuses, wrought by instinct rather than by rule, and possessed no
+receipts--indeed, despised all people who used them, observing that
+people who pickled by book, must pickle by weights and measures, and
+such nonsense; as for herself, her weights and measures were the tip
+of her finger and the tip of her tongue, and if you went nearer,
+why, of course, for dry goods like flour and spice, you went by
+handfuls and pinches, and for wet, there was a middle-sized jug--
+quite the best thing whether for much or little, because you might
+know how much a teacupful was if you'd got any use of your senses,
+and you might be sure it would take five middle-sized jugs to make a
+gallon.  Knowledge of this kind is like Titian's colouring,
+difficult to communicate; and as Mrs. Palfrey, once remarkably
+handsome, had now become rather stout and asthmatical, and scarcely
+ever left home, her oral teaching could hardly be given anywhere
+except at Long Meadows.  Even a matron is not insusceptible to
+flattery, and the prospect of a visitor whose great object would be
+to listen to her conversation, was not without its charms to Mrs.
+Palfrey.  Since there was no receipt to be sent in reply to Mr.
+Freely's humble request, she called on her more docile daughter,
+Penny, to write a note, telling him that her mother would be glad to
+see him and talk with him on brawn, any day that he could call at
+Long Meadows.  Penny obeyed with a trembling hand, thinking how
+wonderfully things came about in this world.
+
+In this way, Mr. Freely got himself introduced into the home of the
+Palfreys, and notwithstanding a tendency in the male part of the
+family to jeer at him a little as "peaky" and bow-legged, he
+presently established his position as an accepted and frequent
+guest.  Young Towers looked at him with increasing disgust when they
+met at the house on a Sunday, and secretly longed to try his ferret
+upon him, as a piece of vermin which that valuable animal would be
+likely to tackle with unhesitating vigour.  But--so blind sometimes
+are parents--neither Mr. nor Mrs. Palfrey suspected that Penny would
+have anything to say to a tradesman of questionable rank whose
+youthful bloom was much withered.  Young Towers, they thought, had
+an eye to her, and THAT was likely enough to be a match some day;
+but Penny was a child at present.  And all the while Penny was
+imagining the circumstances under which Mr. Freely would make her an
+offer:  perhaps down by the row of damson-trees, when they were in
+the garden before tea; perhaps by letter--in which case, how would
+the letter begin?  "Dearest Penelope?" or "My dear Miss Penelope?"
+or straight off, without dear anything, as seemed the most natural
+when people were embarrassed?  But, however he might make the offer,
+she would not accept it without her father's consent:  she would
+always be true to Mr. Freely, but she would not disobey her father.
+For Penny was a good girl, though some of her female friends were
+afterwards of opinion that it spoke ill for her not to have felt an
+instinctive repugnance to Mr. Freely.
+
+But he was cautious, and wished to be quite sure of the ground he
+trod on.  His views on marriage were not entirely sentimental, but
+were as duly mingled with considerations of what would be
+advantageous to a man in his position, as if he had had a very large
+amount of money spent on his education.  He was not a man to fall in
+love in the wrong place; and so, he applied himself quite as much to
+conciliate the favour of the parents, as to secure the attachment of
+Penny.  Mrs. Palfrey had not been inaccessible to flattery, and her
+husband, being also of mortal mould, would not, it might be hoped,
+be proof against rum--that very fine Jamaica rum--of which Mr.
+Freely expected always to have a supply sent him from Jamaica.  It
+was not easy to get Mr. Palfrey into the parlour behind the shop,
+where a mild back-street light fell on the features of the heroic
+admiral; but by getting hold of him rather late one evening as he
+was about to return home from Grimworth, the aspiring lover
+succeeded in persuading him to sup on some collared beef which,
+after Mrs. Palfrey's brawn, he would find the very best of cold
+eating.
+
+From that hour Mr. Freely felt sure of success:  being in privacy
+with an estimable man old enough to be his father, and being rather
+lonely in the world, it was natural he should unbosom himself a
+little on subjects which he could not speak of in a mixed circle--
+especially concerning his expectations from his uncle in Jamaica,
+who had no children, and loved his nephew Edward better than any one
+else in the world, though he had been so hurt at his leaving
+Jamaica, that he had threatened to cut him off with a shilling.
+However, he had since written to state his full forgiveness, and
+though he was an eccentric old gentleman and could not bear to give
+away money during his life, Mr. Edward Freely could show Mr. Palfrey
+the letter which declared, plainly enough, who would be the
+affectionate uncle's heir.  Mr. Palfrey actually saw the letter, and
+could not help admiring the spirit of the nephew who declared that
+such brilliant hopes as these made no difference to his conduct; he
+should work at his humble business and make his modest fortune at it
+all the same.  If the Jamaica estate was to come to him--well and
+good.  It was nothing very surprising for one of the Freely family
+to have an estate left him, considering the lands that family had
+possessed in time gone by--nay, still possessed in the
+Northumberland branch.  Would not Mr. Palfrey take another glass of
+rum? and also look at the last year's balance of the accounts?  Mr.
+Freely was a man who cared to possess personal virtues, and did not
+pique himself on his family, though some men would.
+
+We know how easily the great Leviathan may be led, when once there
+is a hook in his nose or a bridle in his jaws.  Mr. Palfrey was a
+large man, but, like Leviathan's, his bulk went against him when
+once he had taken a turning.  He was not a mercurial man, who easily
+changed his point of view.  Enough.  Before two months were over, he
+had given his consent to Mr. Freely's marriage with his daughter
+Penny, and having hit on a formula by which he could justify it,
+fenced off all doubts and objections, his own included.  The formula
+was this:  "I'm not a man to put my head up an entry before I know
+where it leads."
+
+Little Penny was very proud and fluttering, but hardly so happy as
+she expected to be in an engagement.  She wondered if young Towers
+cared much about it, for he had not been to the house lately, and
+her sister and brothers were rather inclined to sneer than to
+sympathize.  Grimworth rang with the news.  All men extolled Mr.
+Freely's good fortune; while the women, with the tender solicitude
+characteristic of the sex, wished the marriage might turn out well.
+
+While affairs were at this triumphant juncture, Mr. Freely one
+morning observed that a stone-carver who had been breakfasting in
+the eating-room had left a newspaper behind.  It was the X-shire
+Gazette, and X-shire being a county not unknown to Mr. Freely, he
+felt some curiosity to glance over it, and especially over the
+advertisements.  A slight flush came over his face as he read.  It
+was produced by the following announcement:- "If David Faux, son of
+Jonathan Faux, late of Gilsbrook, will apply at the office of Mr.
+Strutt, attorney, of Rodham, he will hear of something to his
+advantage."
+
+"Father's dead!" exclaimed Mr. Freely, involuntarily.  "Can he have
+left me a legacy?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+
+Perhaps it was a result quite different from your expectations, that
+Mr. David Faux should have returned from the West Indies only a few
+years after his arrival there, and have set up in his old business,
+like any plain man who has never travelled.  But these cases do
+occur in life.  Since, as we know, men change their skies and see
+new constellations without changing their souls, it will follow
+sometimes that they don't change their business under those novel
+circumstances.
+
+Certainly, this result was contrary to David's own expectations.  He
+had looked forward, you are aware, to a brilliant career among "the
+blacks"; but, either because they had already seen too many white
+men, or for some other reason, they did not at once recognize him as
+a superior order of human being; besides, there were no princesses
+among them.  Nobody in Jamaica was anxious to maintain David for the
+mere pleasure of his society; and those hidden merits of a man which
+are so well known to himself were as little recognized there as they
+notoriously are in the effete society of the Old World.  So that in
+the dark hints that David threw out at the Oyster Club about that
+life of Sultanic self-indulgence spent by him in the luxurious
+Indies, I really think he was doing himself a wrong; I believe he
+worked for his bread, and, in fact, took to cooking as, after all,
+the only department in which he could offer skilled labour.  He had
+formed several ingenious plans by which he meant to circumvent
+people of large fortune and small faculty; but then he never met
+with exactly the right circumstances.  David's devices for getting
+rich without work had apparently no direct relation with the world
+outside him, as his confectionery receipts had.  It is possible to
+pass a great many bad half pennies and bad half-crowns, but I
+believe there has no instance been known of passing a halfpenny or a
+half-crown as a sovereign.  A sharper can drive a brisk trade in
+this world:  it is undeniable that there may be a fine career for
+him, if he will dare consequences; but David was too timid to be a
+sharper, or venture in any way among the mantraps of the law.  He
+dared rob nobody but his mother.  And so he had to fall back on the
+genuine value there was in him--to be content to pass as a good
+halfpenny, or, to speak more accurately, as a good confectioner.
+For in spite of some additional reading and observation, there was
+nothing else he could make so much money by; nay, he found in
+himself even a capability of extending his skill in this direction,
+and embracing all forms of cookery; while, in other branches of
+human labour, he began to see that it was not possible for him to
+shine.  Fate was too strong for him; he had thought to master her
+inclination and had fled over the seas to that end; but she caught
+him, tied an apron round him, and snatching him from all other
+devices, made him devise cakes and patties in a kitchen at
+Kingstown.  He was getting submissive to her, since she paid him
+with tolerable gains; but fevers and prickly heat, and other evils
+incidental to cooks in ardent climates, made him long for his native
+land; so he took ship once more, carrying his six years' savings,
+and seeing distinctly, this time, what were Fate's intentions as to
+his career.  If you question me closely as to whether all the money
+with which he set up at Grimworth consisted of pure and simple
+earnings, I am obliged to confess that he got a sum or two for
+charitably abstaining from mentioning some other people's
+misdemeanours.  Altogether, since no prospects were attached to his
+family name, and since a new christening seemed a suitable
+commencement of a new life, Mr. David Faux thought it as well to
+call himself Mr. Edward Freely.
+
+But lo! now, in opposition to all calculable probability, some
+benefit appeared to be attached to the name of David Faux.  Should
+he neglect it, as beneath the attention of a prosperous tradesman?
+It might bring him into contact with his family again, and he felt
+no yearnings in that direction:  moreover, he had small belief that
+the "something to his advantage" could be anything considerable.  On
+the other hand, even a small gain is pleasant, and the promise of it
+in this instance was so surprising, that David felt his curiosity
+awakened.  The scale dipped at last on the side of writing to the
+lawyer, and, to be brief, the correspondence ended in an appointment
+for a meeting between David and his eldest brother at Mr. Strutt's,
+the vague "something" having been defined as a legacy from his
+father of eighty-two pounds, three shillings.
+
+David, you know, had expected to be disinherited; and so he would
+have been, if he had not, like some other indifferent sons, come of
+excellent parents, whose conscience made them scrupulous where much
+more highly-instructed people often feel themselves warranted in
+following the bent of their indignation.  Good Mrs. Faux could never
+forget that she had brought this ill-conditioned son into the world
+when he was in that entirely helpless state which excluded the
+smallest choice on his part; and, somehow or other, she felt that
+his going wrong would be his father's and mother's fault, if they
+failed in one tittle of their parental duty.  Her notion of parental
+duty was not of a high and subtle kind, but it included giving him
+his due share of the family property; for when a man had got a
+little honest money of his own, was he so likely to steal?  To cut
+the delinquent son off with a shilling, was like delivering him over
+to his evil propensities.  No; let the sum of twenty guineas which
+he had stolen be deducted from his share, and then let the sum of
+three guineas be put back from it, seeing that his mother had always
+considered three of the twenty guineas as his; and, though he had
+run away, and was, perhaps, gone across the sea, let the money be
+left to him all the same, and be kept in reserve for his possible
+return.  Mr. Faux agreed to his wife's views, and made a codicil to
+his will accordingly, in time to die with a clear conscience.  But
+for some time his family thought it likely that David would never
+reappear; and the eldest son, who had the charge of Jacob on his
+hands, often thought it a little hard that David might perhaps be
+dead, and yet, for want of certitude on that point, his legacy could
+not fall to his legal heir.  But in this state of things the
+opposite certitude--namely, that David was still alive and in
+England--seemed to be brought by the testimony of a neighbour, who,
+having been on a journey to Cattelton, was pretty sure he had seen
+David in a gig, with a stout man driving by his side.  He could
+"swear it was David," though he could "give no account why, for he
+had no marks on him; but no more had a white dog, and that didn't
+hinder folks from knowing a white dog."  It was this incident which
+had led to the advertisement.
+
+The legacy was paid, of course, after a few preliminary disclosures
+as to Mr. David's actual position.  He begged to send his love to
+his mother, and to say that he hoped to pay her a dutiful visit by
+and by; but, at present, his business and near prospect of marriage
+made it difficult for him to leave home.  His brother replied with
+much frankness.
+
+"My mother may do as she likes about having you to see her, but, for
+my part, I don't want to catch sight of you on the premises again.
+When folks have taken a new name, they'd better keep to their new
+'quinetance."
+
+David pocketed the insult along with the eighty-two pounds three,
+and travelled home again in some triumph at the ease of a
+transaction which had enriched him to this extent.  He had no
+intention of offending his brother by further claims on his
+fraternal recognition, and relapsed with full contentment into the
+character of Mr. Edward Freely, the orphan, scion of a great but
+reduced family, with an eccentric uncle in the West Indies.  (I have
+already hinted that he had some acquaintance with imaginative
+literature; and being of a practical turn, he had, you perceive,
+applied even this form of knowledge to practical purposes.)
+
+It was little more than a week after the return from his fruitful
+journey, that the day of his marriage with Penny having been fixed,
+it was agreed that Mrs. Palfrey should overcome her reluctance to
+move from home, and that she and her husband should bring their two
+daughters to inspect little Penny's future abode and decide on the
+new arrangements to be made for the reception of the bride.  Mr.
+Freely meant her to have a house so pretty and comfortable that she
+need not envy even a wool-factor's wife.  Of course, the upper room
+over the shop was to be the best sitting-room; but also the parlour
+behind the shop was to be made a suitable bower for the lovely
+Penny, who would naturally wish to be near her husband, though Mr.
+Freely declared his resolution never to allow HIS wife to wait in
+the shop.  The decisions about the parlour furniture were left till
+last, because the party was to take tea there; and, about five
+o'clock, they were all seated there with the best muffins and
+buttered buns before them, little Penny blushing and smiling, with
+her "crop" in the best order, and a blue frock showing her little
+white shoulders, while her opinion was being always asked and never
+given.  She secretly wished to have a particular sort of chimney
+ornaments, but she could not have brought herself to mention it.
+Seated by the side of her yellow and rather withered lover, who,
+though he had not reached his thirtieth year, had already crow's-
+feet about his eyes, she was quite tremulous at the greatness of her
+lot in being married to a man who had travelled so much--and before
+her sister Letty!  The handsome Letitia looked rather proud and
+contemptuous, thought her nature brother-in-law an odious person,
+and was vexed with her father and mother for letting Penny marry
+him.  Dear little Penny!  She certainly did look like a fresh white-
+heart cherry going to be bitten off the stem by that lipless mouth.
+Would no deliverer come to make a slip between that cherry and that
+mouth without a lip?
+
+"Quite a family likeness between the admiral and you, Mr. Freely,"
+observed Mrs. Palfrey, who was looking at the family portrait for
+the first time.  "It's wonderful! and only a grand-uncle.  Do you
+feature the rest of your family, as you know of?"
+
+"I can't say," said Mr. Freely, with a sigh.  "My family have mostly
+thought themselves too high to take any notice of me."
+
+At this moment an extraordinary disturbance was heard in the shop,
+as of a heavy animal stamping about and making angry noises, and
+then of a glass vessel falling in shivers, while the voice of the
+apprentice was heard calling "Master" in great alarm.
+
+Mr. Freely rose in anxious astonishment, and hastened into the shop,
+followed by the four Palfreys, who made a group at the parlour-door,
+transfixed with wonder at seeing a large man in a smock-frock, with
+a pitchfork in his hand, rush up to Mr. Freely and hug him, crying
+out,--"Zavy, Zavy, b'other Zavy!"
+
+It was Jacob, and for some moments David lost all presence of mind.
+He felt arrested for having stolen his mother's guineas.  He turned
+cold, and trembled in his brother's grasp.
+
+"Why, how's this?" said Mr. Palfrey, advancing from the door.  "Who
+is he?"
+
+Jacob supplied the answer by saying over and over again -
+
+"I'se Zacob, b'other Zacob.  Come 'o zee Zavy"--till hunger prompted
+him to relax his grasp, and to seize a large raised pie, which he
+lifted to his mouth.
+
+By this time David's power of device had begun to return, but it was
+a very hard task for his prudence to master his rage and hatred
+towards poor Jacob.
+
+"I don't know who he is; he must be drunk," he said, in a low tone
+to Mr. Palfrey.  "But he's dangerous with that pitchfork.  He'll
+never let it go."  Then checking himself on the point of betraying
+too great an intimacy with Jacob's habits, he added "You watch him,
+while I run for the constable."  And he hurried out of the shop.
+
+"Why, where do you come from, my man?" said Mr. Palfrey, speaking to
+Jacob in a conciliatory tone.  Jacob was eating his pie by large
+mouthfuls, and looking round at the other good things in the shop,
+while he embraced his pitchfork with his left arm, and laid his left
+hand on some Bath buns.  He was in the rare position of a person who
+recovers a long absent friend and finds him richer than ever in the
+characteristics that won his heart.
+
+"I's Zacob--b'other Zacob--'t home.  I love Zavy--b'other Zavy," he
+said, as soon as Mr. Palfrey had drawn his attention.  "Zavy come
+back from z' Indies--got mother's zinnies.  Where's Zavy?" he added,
+looking round and then turning to the others with a questioning air,
+puzzled by David's disappearance.
+
+"It's very odd," observed Mr. Palfrey to his wife and daughters.
+"He seems to say Freely's his brother come back from th' Indies."
+
+"What a pleasant relation for us!" said Letitia, sarcastically.  "I
+think he's a good deal like Mr. Freely.  He's got just the same sort
+of nose, and his eyes are the same colour."
+
+Poor Penny was ready to cry.
+
+But now Mr. Freely re-entered the shop without the constable.
+During his walk of a few yards he had had time and calmness enough
+to widen his view of consequences, and he saw that to get Jacob
+taken to the workhouse or to the lock-up house as an offensive
+stranger might have awkward effects if his family took the trouble
+of inquiring after him.  He must resign himself to more patient
+measures.
+
+"On second thoughts," he said, beckoning to Mr. Palfrey and
+whispering to him while Jacob's back was turned, "he's a poor half-
+witted fellow.  Perhaps his friends will come after him.  I don't
+mind giving him something to eat, and letting him lie down for the
+night.  He's got it into his head that he knows me--they do get
+these fancies, idiots do.  He'll perhaps go away again in an hour or
+two, and make no more ado.  I'm a kind-hearted man MYSELF--I
+shouldn't like to have the poor fellow ill-used."
+
+"Why, he'll eat a sovereign's worth in no time," said Mr. Palfrey,
+thinking Mr. Freely a little too magnificent in his generosity.
+
+"Eh, Zavy, come back?" exclaimed Jacob, giving his dear brother
+another hug, which crushed Mr. Freely's features inconveniently
+against the stale of the pitchfork.
+
+"Aye, aye," said Mr. Freely, smiling, with every capability of
+murder in his mind, except the courage to commit it.  He wished the
+Bath buns might by chance have arsenic in them.
+
+"Mother's zinnies?" said Jacob, pointing to a glass jar of yellow
+lozenges that stood in the window.  "Zive 'em me."
+
+David dared not do otherwise than reach down the glass jar and give
+Jacob a handful.  He received them in his smock-frock, which he held
+out for more.
+
+"They'll keep him quiet a bit, at any rate," thought David, and
+emptied the jar.  Jacob grinned and mowed with delight.
+
+"You're very good to this stranger, Mr. Freely," said Letitia; and
+then spitefully, as David joined the party at the parlour-door, "I
+think you could hardly treat him better, if he was really your
+brother."
+
+"I've always thought it a duty to be good to idiots," said Mr.
+Freely, striving after the most moral view of the subject.  "We
+might have been idiots ourselves--everybody might have been born
+idiots, instead of having their right senses."
+
+"I don't know where there'd ha' been victual for us all then,"
+observed Mrs. Palfrey, regarding the matter in a housewifely light.
+
+"But let us sit down again and finish our tea," said Mr. Freely.
+"Let us leave the poor creature to himself."
+
+They walked into the parlour again; but Jacob, not apparently
+appreciating the kindness of leaving him to himself, immediately
+followed his brother, and seated himself, pitchfork grounded, at the
+table.
+
+"Well," said Miss Letitia, rising, "I don't know whether YOU mean to
+stay, mother; but I shall go home."
+
+"Oh, me too," said Penny, frightened to death at Jacob, who had
+begun to nod and grin at her.
+
+"Well, I think we HAD better be going, Mr. Palfrey," said the
+mother, rising more slowly.
+
+Mr. Freely, whose complexion had become decidedly yellower during
+the last half-hour, did not resist this proposition.  He hoped they
+should meet again "under happier circumstances."
+
+"It's my belief the man is his brother," said Letitia, when they
+were all on their way home.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Mr. Palfrey.  "Freely's got no brother--he's said
+so many and many a time; he's an orphan; he's got nothing but
+uncles--leastwise, one.  What's it matter what an idiot says?  What
+call had Freely to tell lies?"
+
+Letitia tossed her head and was silent.
+
+Mr. Freely, left alone with his affectionate brother Jacob, brooded
+over the possibility of luring him out of the town early the next
+morning, and getting him conveyed to Gilsbrook without further
+betrayals.  But the thing was difficult.  He saw clearly that if he
+took Jacob himself, his absence, conjoined with the disappearance of
+the stranger, would either cause the conviction that he was really a
+relative, or would oblige him to the dangerous course of inventing a
+story to account for his disappearance, and his own absence at the
+same time.  David groaned.  There come occasions when falsehood is
+felt to be inconvenient.  It would, perhaps, have been a longer-
+headed device, if he had never told any of those clever fibs about
+his uncles, grand and otherwise; for the Palfreys were simple
+people, and shared the popular prejudice against lying.  Even if he
+could get Jacob away this time, what security was there that he
+would not come again, having once found the way?  O guineas!  O
+lozenges! what enviable people those were who had never robbed their
+mothers, and had never told fibs!  David spent a sleepless night,
+while Jacob was snoring close by.  Was this the upshot of travelling
+to the Indies, and acquiring experience combined with anecdote?
+
+He rose at break of day, as he had once before done when he was in
+fear of Jacob, and took all gentle means to rouse this fatal brother
+from his deep sleep; he dared not be loud, because his apprentice
+was in the house, and would report everything.  But Jacob was not to
+be roused.  He fought out with his fist at the unknown cause of
+disturbance, turned over, and snored again.  He must be left to wake
+as he would.  David, with a cold perspiration on his brow, confessed
+to himself that Jacob could not be got away that day.
+
+Mr. Palfrey came over to Grimworth before noon, with a natural
+curiosity to see how his future son-in-law got on with the stranger
+to whom he was so benevolently inclined.  He found a crowd round the
+shop.  All Grimworth by this time had heard how Freely had been
+fastened on by an idiot, who called him "Brother Zavy"; and the
+younger population seemed to find the singular stranger an
+unwearying source of fascination, while the householders dropped in
+one by one to inquire into the incident.
+
+"Why don't you send him to the workhouse?" said Mr. Prettyman.
+"You'll have a row with him and the children presently, and he'll
+eat you up.  The workhouse is the proper place for him; let his kin
+claim him, if he's got any."
+
+"Those may be YOUR feelings, Mr. Prettyman," said David, his mind
+quite enfeebled by the torture of his position.
+
+"What! IS he your brother, then?" said Mr. Prettyman, looking at his
+neighbour Freely rather sharply.
+
+"All men are our brothers, and idiots particular so," said Mr.
+Freely, who, like many other travelled men, was not master of the
+English language.
+
+"Come, come, if he's your brother, tell the truth, man," said Mr.
+Prettyman, with growing suspicion.  "Don't be ashamed of your own
+flesh and blood."
+
+Mr. Palfrey was present, and also had his eye on Freely.  It is
+difficult for a man to believe in the advantage of a truth which
+will disclose him to have been a liar.  In this critical moment,
+David shrank from this immediate disgrace in the eyes of his future
+father-in-law.
+
+"Mr. Prettyman," he said, "I take your observations as an insult.
+I've no reason to be otherwise than proud of my own flesh and blood.
+If this poor man was my brother more than all men are, I should say
+so."
+
+A tall figure darkened the door, and David, lifting his eyes in that
+direction, saw his eldest brother, Jonathan, on the door-sill.
+
+"I'll stay wi' Zavy," shouted Jacob, as he, too, caught sight of his
+eldest brother; and, running behind the counter, he clutched David
+hard.
+
+"What, he IS here?" said Jonathan Faux, coming forward.  "My mother
+would have no nay, as he'd been away so long, but I must see after
+him.  And it struck me he was very like come after you, because we'd
+been talking of you o' late, and where you lived."
+
+David saw there was no escape; he smiled a ghastly smile.
+
+"What! is this a relation of yours, sir?" said Mr. Palfrey to
+Jonathan.
+
+"Aye, it's my innicent of a brother, sure enough," said honest
+Jonathan.  "A fine trouble and cost he is to us, in th' eating and
+other things, but we must bear what's laid on us."
+
+"And your name's Freely, is it?" said Mr. Prettyman.
+
+"Nay, nay, my name's Faux, I know nothing o' Freelys," said
+Jonathan, curtly.  "Come," he added, turning to David, "I must take
+some news to mother about Jacob.  Shall I take him with me, or will
+you undertake to send him back?"
+
+"Take him, if you can make him loose his hold of me," said David,
+feebly.
+
+"Is this gentleman here in the confectionery line your brother,
+then, sir?" said Mr. Prettyman, feeling that it was an occasion on
+which format language must be used.
+
+"I don't want to own him," said Jonathan, unable to resist a
+movement of indignation that had never been allowed to satisfy
+itself.  "He ran away from home with good reasons in his pocket
+years ago:  he didn't want to be owned again, I reckon."
+
+Mr. Palfrey left the shop; he felt his own pride too severely
+wounded by the sense that he had let himself be fooled, to feel
+curiosity for further details.  The most pressing business was to go
+home and tell his daughter that Freely was a poor sneak, probably a
+rascal, and that her engagement was broken off.
+
+Mr. Prettyman stayed, with some internal self-gratulation that HE
+had never given in to Freely, and that Mr. Chaloner would see now
+what sort of fellow it was that he had put over the heads of older
+parishioners.  He considered it due from him (Mr. Prettyman) that,
+for the interests of the parish, he should know all that was to be
+known about this "interloper."  Grimworth would have people coming
+from Botany Bay to settle in it, if things went on in this way.
+
+It soon appeared that Jacob could not be made to quit his dear
+brother David except by force.  He understood, with a clearness
+equal to that of the most intelligent mind, that Jonathan would take
+him back to skimmed milk, apple-dumpling, broad beans, and pork.
+And he had found a paradise in his brother's shop.  It was a
+difficult matter to use force with Jacob, for he wore heavy nailed
+boots; and if his pitchfork had been mastered, he would have
+resorted without hesitation to kicks.  Nothing short of using guile
+to bind him hand and foot would have made all parties safe.
+
+"Let him stay," said David, with desperate resignation, frightened
+above all things at the idea of further disturbances in his shop,
+which would make his exposure all the more conspicuous.  "YOU go
+away again, and to-morrow I can, perhaps, get him to go to Gilsbrook
+with me.  He'll follow me fast enough, I daresay," he added, with a
+half-groan.
+
+"Very well," said Jonathan, gruffly.  "I don't see why YOU shouldn't
+have some trouble and expense with him as well as the rest of us.
+But mind you bring him back safe and soon, else mother'll never
+rest."
+
+On this arrangement being concluded, Mr. Prettyman begged Mr.
+Jonathan Faux to go and take a snack with him, an invitation which
+was quite acceptable; and as honest Jonathan had nothing to be
+ashamed of, it is probable that he was very frank in his
+communications to the civil draper, who, pursuing the benefit of the
+parish, hastened to make all the information he could gather about
+Freely common parochial property.  You may imagine that the meeting
+of the Club at the Woolpack that evening was unusually lively.
+Every member was anxious to prove that he had never liked Freely, as
+he called himself.  Faux was his name, was it?  Fox would have been
+more suitable.  The majority expressed a desire to see him hooted
+out of the town.
+
+Mr. Freely did not venture over his door-sill that day, for he knew
+Jacob would keep at his side, and there was every probability that
+they would have a train of juvenile followers.  He sent to engage
+the Woolpack gig for an early hour the next morning; but this order
+was not kept religiously a secret by the landlord.  Mr. Freely was
+informed that he could not have the gig till seven; and the
+Grimworth people were early risers.  Perhaps they were more alert
+than usual on this particular morning; for when Jacob, with a bag of
+sweets in his hand, was induced to mount the gig with his brother
+David, the inhabitants of the market-place were looking out of their
+doors and windows, and at the turning of the street there was even a
+muster of apprentices and schoolboys, who shouted as they passed in
+what Jacob took to be a very merry and friendly way, nodding and
+grinning in return.  "Huzzay, David Faux! how's your uncle?" was
+their morning's greeting.  Like other pointed things, it was not
+altogether impromptu.
+
+Even this public derision was not so crushing to David as the
+horrible thought that though he might succeed now in getting Jacob
+home again there would never be any security against his coming
+back, like a wasp to the honey-pot.  As long as David lived at
+Grimworth, Jacob's return would be hanging over him.  But could he
+go on living at Grimworth--an object of ridicule, discarded by the
+Palfreys, after having revelled in the consciousness that he was an
+envied and prosperous confectioner?  David liked to be envied; he
+minded less about being loved.
+
+His doubts on this point were soon settled.  The mind of Grimworth
+became obstinately set against him and his viands, and the new
+school being finished, the eating-room was closed.  If there had
+been no other reason, sympathy with the Palfreys, that respectable
+family who had lived in the parish time out of mind, would have
+determined all well-to-do people to decline Freely's goods.
+Besides, he had absconded with his mother's guineas:  who knew what
+else he had done, in Jamaica or elsewhere, before he came to
+Grimworth, worming himself into families under false pretences?
+Females shuddered.  Dreadful suspicions gathered round him:  his
+green eyes, his bow-legs had a criminal aspect.  The rector disliked
+the sight of a man who had imposed upon him; and all boys who could
+not afford to purchase, hooted "David Faux" as they passed his shop.
+Certainly no man now would pay anything for the "goodwill" of Mr.
+Freely's business, and he would be obliged to quit it without a
+peculium so desirable towards defraying the expense of moving.
+
+In a few months the shop in the marketplace was again to let, and
+Mr. David Faux, alias Mr. Edward Freely, had gone--nobody at
+Grimworth knew whither.  In this way the demoralization of Grimworth
+women was checked.  Young Mrs. Steene renewed her efforts to make
+light mince-pies, and having at last made a batch so excellent that
+Mr. Steene looked at her with complacency as he ate them, and said
+they were the best he had ever eaten in his life, she thought less
+of bulbuls and renegades ever after.  The secrets of the finer
+cookery were revived in the breasts of matronly house-wives, and
+daughters were again anxious to be initiated in them.
+
+You will further, I hope, be glad to bear, that some purchases of
+drapery made by pretty Penny, in preparation for her marriage with
+Mr. Freely, came in quite as well for her wedding with young Towers
+as if they had been made expressly for the latter occasion.  For
+Penny's complexion had not altered, and blue always became it best.
+
+Here ends the story of Mr. David Faux, confectioner, and his brother
+Jacob.  And we see in it, I think, an admirable instance of the
+unexpected forms in which the great Nemesis hides herself.
+
+(1860)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Brother Jacob, by George Eliot
+
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