Basil | Page 7

Towards my
sister, his demeanour always exhibited something of the old-fashioned,
affectionate gallantry of a former age. He paid her the same attention
that he would have paid to the highest lady in the land. He led her into
the dining-room, when we were alone, exactly as he would have led a
duchess into a banqueting-hall. He would allow us, as boys, to quit the
breakfast-table before he had risen himself; but never before she had
left it. If a servant failed in duty towards him, the servant was often
forgiven; if towards her, the servant was sent away on the spot. His
daughter was in his eyes the representative of her mother: the mistress
of his house, as well as his child. It was curious to see the mixture of
high-bred courtesy and fatherly love in his manner, as he just gently
touched her forehead with his lips, when he first saw her in the
morning.
In person, my father was of not more than middle height. He was very
slenderly and delicately made; his head small, and well set on his
shoulders--his forehead more broad than lofty--his complexion
singularly pale, except in moments of agitation, when I have already
noticed its tendency to flush all over in an instant. His eyes, large and
gray, had something commanding in their look; they gave a certain
unchanging firmness and dignity to his expression, not often met with.

They betrayed his birth and breeding, his old ancestral prejudices, his
chivalrous sense of honour, in every glance. It required, indeed, all the
masculine energy of look about the upper part of his face, to redeem the
lower part from an appearance of effeminacy, so delicately was it
moulded in its fine Norman outline. His smile was remarkable for its
sweetness--it was almost like a woman's smile. In speaking, too, his
lips often trembled as women's do. If he ever laughed, as a young man,
his laugh must have been very clear and musical; but since I can
recollect him, I never heard it. In his happiest moments, in the gayest
society, I have only seen him smile.
There were other characteristics of my father's disposition and manner,
which I might mention; but they will appear to greater advantage,
perhaps, hereafter, connected with circumstances which especially
called them forth.
IV.
When a family is possessed of large landed property, the individual of
that family who shows least interest in its welfare; who is least fond of
home, least connected by his own sympathies with his relatives, least
ready to learn his duties or admit his responsibilities, is often that very
individual who is to succeed to the family inheritance--the eldest son.
My brother Ralph was no exception to this remark. We were educated
together. After our education was completed, I never saw him, except
for short periods. He was almost always on the continent, for some
years after he left college. And when he returned definitely to England,
he did not return to live under our roof. Both in town and country he
was our visitor, not our inmate.
I recollect him at school--stronger, taller, handsomer than I was; far
beyond me in popularity among the little community we lived with; the
first to lead a daring exploit, the last to abandon it; now at the bottom of
the class, now at the top--just that sort of gay, boisterous, fine-looking,
dare-devil boy, whom old people would instinctively turn round and
smile after, as they passed him by in a morning walk.

Then, at college, he became illustrious among rowers and cricketers,
renowned as a pistol shot, dreaded as a singlestick player. No wine
parties in the university were such wine parties as his; tradesmen gave
him the first choice of everything that was new; young ladies in the
town fell in love with him by dozens; young tutors with a tendency to
dandyism, copied the cut of his coat and the tie of his cravat; even the
awful heads of houses looked leniently on his delinquencies. The gay,
hearty, handsome young English gentleman carried a charm about him
that subdued everybody. Though I was his favourite butt, both at school
and college, I never quarrelled with him in my life. I always let him
ridicule my dress, manners, and habits in his own reckless, boisterous
way, as if it had been a part of his birthright privilege to laugh at me as
much as he chose.
Thus far, my father had no worse anxieties about him than those
occasioned by his high spirits and his heavy debts. But when he
returned home--when the debts had been paid, and it was next thought
necessary to drill the free, careless energies into something like useful
discipline--then my father's trials and difficulties began in earnest.
It was impossible