The House on the Beach

The House on the Beach
by
George Meredith

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Title: The House on the Beach
Author: George Meredith
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
Release Date: September, 2003 [Etext #4495] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 5,
2002]
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[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making
an entire meal of them. D.W.]

THE HOUSE ON THE BEACH
By George Meredith

A REALISTIC TALE
CHAPTER I
The experience of great officials who have laid down their dignities
before death, or have had the philosophic mind to review themselves
while still wielding the deputy sceptre, teaches them that in the exercise
of authority over men an eccentric behaviour in trifles has most
exposed them to hostile criticism and gone farthest to jeopardize their
popularity. It is their Achilles' heel; the place where their mother
Nature holds them as she dips them in our waters. The eccentricity of
common persons is the entertainment of the multitude, and the maternal
hand is perceived for a cherishing and endearing sign upon them; but
rarely can this be found suitable for the august in station; only, indeed,
when their sceptre is no more fearful than a grandmother's birch; and
these must learn from it sooner or later that they are uncomfortably
mortal.
When herrings are at auction on a beach, for example, the man of chief
distinction in the town should not step in among a poor fraternity to
take advantage of an occasion of cheapness, though it be done, as he
may protest, to relieve the fishermen of a burden; nor should such a

dignitary as the bailiff of a Cinque Port carry home the spoil of
victorious bargaining on his arm in a basket. It is not that his conduct is
in itself objectionable, so much as that it causes him to be popularly
weighed; and during life, until the best of all advocates can plead
before our fellow Englishmen that we are out of their way, it is prudent
to avoid the process.
Mr. Tinman, however, this high-stepping person in question, happened
to have come of a marketing mother. She had started him from a small
shop to a big one. He, by the practice of her virtues, had been enabled
to start himself as a gentleman. He was a man of this ambition, and
prouder behind it. But having started himself precipitately, he took rank
among independent incomes, as they are called, only to take fright at
the perils of starvation besetting one