The Ordeal of Richard Feverel

The Ordeal of Richard Feverel,
Complete
by George Meredith

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Complete
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Title: The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Complete
Author: George Meredith
Release Date: October 12, 2006 [EBook #4412]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD
FEVEREL ***

Produced by Pat Castevans and David Widger

THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL
By George Meredith

1905

CONTENTS I. THE INMATES OF RAYNHAM ABBEY II. FATES
SELECTED THE FOURTEENTH BIRTHDAY TO TRY THE
STRENGTH III. THE MAGIAN CONFLICT IV. ARSON V.
ADRIAN PLIES HIS HOOK VI. JUVENILE STRATAGEMS VII.
DAPHNE'S BOWER VIII. THE BITTER CUP IX. A FINE
DISTINCTION X. RICHARD PASSES THROUGH HIS
PRELIMINARY ORDEAL XI. THE LAST ACT OF THE
BAKEWELL COMEDY IS CLOSED IN A LETTER XII. THE
BLOSSOMING SEASON XIII. THE MAGNETIC AGE XIV. AN
ATTRACTION XV. FERDINAND AND MIRANDA XVI.
UNMASKING OF MASTER RIPTON THOMPSON XVII. GOOD
WINE AND GOOD BLOOD XVIII. THE SYSTEM ENCOUNTERS
THE WILD OATS SPECIAL PLEA XIX. A DIVERSION PLAYED
ON A PENNY WHISTLE XX. CELEBRATES THE
TIME-HONOURED TREATMENT OF A DRAGON BY THE HERO
XXI. RICHARD IS SUMMONED TO TOWN TO HEAR A SERMON
XXII. INDICATES THE APPROACHES OF FEVER XXIII. CRISIS
IN THE APPLE-DISEASE XXIV. OF THE SPRING PRIMROSE
AND THE AUTUMNAL XXV. IN WHICH THE HERO TAKES A
STEP XXVI. RECORDS THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF THE
HERO XXVII. CONTAINS AN INTERCESSION FOR THE
HEROINE XXVIII. PREPARATIONS FOR ACTION WERE
CONDUCTED UNDER THE APRIL OF LOVERS XIX. THE LAST
ACT OF THE COMEDY TAKES THE PLACE OF THE FIRST XXX.
CELEBRATES THE BREAKFAST XXXI. THE PHILOSOPHER
APPEARS IN PERSON XXXII. PROCESSION OF THE CAKE
XXXIII. NURSING THE DEVIL XXXIV. CONQUEST OF AN
EPICURE XXXV. CLARE'S MARRIAGE XXXVI. A
DINNER-PARTY AT RICHMOND XXXVII. MRS. BERRY ON
MATRIMONY XXXVIII. AN ENCHANTRESS XXXIX. THE
LITTLE BIRD AND THE FALCON: A BERRY TO THE RESCUE!
XL. CLARE'S DIARY XLI. AUSTIN RETURNS XLII. NATURE
SPEAKS XLIII. AGAIN THE MAGIAN CONFLICT XLIV. THE
LAST SCENE XLV. LADY BLANDISH TO AUSTIN

WENTWORTH
CHAPTER I
Some years ago a book was published under the title of "The Pilgrim's
Scrip." It consisted of a selection of original aphorisms by an
anonymous gentleman, who in this bashful manner gave a bruised heart
to the world.
He made no pretension to novelty. "Our new thoughts have thrilled
dead bosoms," he wrote; by which avowal it may be seen that youth
had manifestly gone from him, since he had ceased to be jealous of the
ancients. There was a half-sigh floating through his pages for those
days of intellectual coxcombry, when ideas come to us affecting the
embraces of virgins, and swear to us they are ours alone, and no one
else have they ever visited: and we believe them.
For an example of his ideas of the sex he said:
"I expect that Woman will be the last thing civilized by Man."
Some excitement was produced in the bosoms of ladies by so
monstrous a scorn of them.
One adventurous person betook herself to the Heralds' College, and
there ascertained that a Griffin between two Wheatsheaves, which
stood on the title-page of the book, formed the crest of Sir Austin
Absworthy Bearne Feverel, Baronet, of Raynham Abbey, in a certain
Western county folding Thames: a man of wealth and honour, and a
somewhat lamentable history.
The outline of the baronet's story was by no means new. He had a wife,
and he had a friend. His marriage was for love; his wife was a beauty;
his friend was a sort of poet. His wife had his whole heart, and his
friend all his confidence. When he selected Denzil Somers from among
his college chums, it was not on account of any similarity of disposition
between them, but from his intense worship of genius, which made him
overlook the absence of principle in his associate for the sake of such

brilliant promise. Denzil had a small patrimony to lead off with, and
that he dissipated before he left college; thenceforth he was dependent
upon his admirer, with whom he lived, filling a nominal post of bailiff
to the estates, and launching forth verse of some satiric and sentimental
quality; for being inclined to vice, and occasionally, and in a quiet way,
practising it, he was of course a sentimentalist and a satirist, entitled to
lash the Age and complain of human nature. His earlier poems,
published under the pseudonym of Diaper Sandoe, were so pure and
bloodless in their love passages, and