The Professor | Page 8

the hill-side; the country
wore, on the whole, a cheerful, active, fertile look. Steam, trade,
machinery had long banished from it all romance and seclusion. At a
distance of five miles, a valley, opening between the low hills, held in
its cups the great town of X----. A dense, permanent vapour brooded
over this locality--there lay Edward's "Concern."
I forced my eye to scrutinize this prospect, I forced my mind to dwell
on it for a time, and when I found that it communicated no pleasurable
emotion to my heart--that it stirred in me none of the hopes a man
ought to feel, when he sees laid before him the scene of his life's
career--I said to myself, "William, you are a rebel against
circumstances; you are a fool, and know not what you want; you have
chosen trade and you shall be a tradesman. Look!" I continued
mentally--"Look at the sooty smoke in that hollow, and know that there
is your post! There you cannot dream, you cannot speculate and
theorize--there you shall out and work!"
Thus self-schooled, I returned to the house. My brother was in the
breakfast-room. I met him collectedly--I could not meet him cheerfully;
he was standing on the rug, his back to the fire--how much did I read in
the expression of his eye as my glance encountered his, when I
advanced to bid him good morning; how much that was contradictory
to my nature! He said "Good morning" abruptly and nodded, and then
he snatched, rather than took, a newspaper from the table, and began to
read it with the air of a master who seizes a pretext to escape the bore
of conversing with an underling. It was well I had taken a resolution to

endure for a time, or his manner would have gone far to render
insupportable the disgust I had just been endeavouring to subdue. I
looked at him: I measured his robust frame and powerful proportions; I
saw my own reflection in the mirror over the mantel-piece; I amused
myself with comparing the two pictures. In face I resembled him,
though I was not so handsome; my features were less regular; I had a
darker eye, and a broader brow--in form I was greatly inferior--thinner,
slighter, not so tall. As an animal, Edward excelled me far; should he
prove as paramount in mind as in person I must be a slave--for I must
expect from him no lion-like generosity to one weaker than himself; his
cold, avaricious eye, his stern, forbidding manner told me he would not
spare. Had I then force of mind to cope with him? I did not know; I had
never been tried.
Mrs. Crimsworth's entrance diverted my thoughts for a moment. She
looked well, dressed in white, her face and her attire shining in morning
and bridal freshness. I addressed her with the degree of ease her last
night's careless gaiety seemed to warrant, but she replied with coolness
and restraint: her husband had tutored her; she was not to be too
familiar with his clerk.
As soon as breakfast was over Mr. Crimsworth intimated to me that
they were bringing the gig round to the door, and that in five minutes
he should expect me to be ready to go down with him to X----. I did not
keep him waiting; we were soon dashing at a rapid rate along the road.
The horse he drove was the same vicious animal about which Mrs.
Crimsworth had expressed her fears the night before. Once or twice
Jack seemed disposed to turn restive, but a vigorous and determined
application of the whip from the ruthless hand of his master soon
compelled him to submission, and Edward's dilated nostril expressed
his triumph in the result of the contest; he scarcely spoke to me during
the whole of the brief drive, only opening his lips at intervals to damn
his horse.
X---- was all stir and bustle when we entered it; we left the clean streets
where there were dwelling-houses and shops, churches, and public
buildings; we left all these, and turned down to a region of mills and

warehouses; thence we passed through two massive gates into a great
paved yard, and we were in Bigben Close, and the mill was before us,
vomiting soot from its long chimney, and quivering through its thick
brick walls with the commotion of its iron bowels. Workpeople were
passing to and fro; a waggon was being laden with pieces. Mr.
Crimsworth looked from side to side, and seemed at one glance to
comprehend all that was going on; he alighted, and leaving his horse
and gig to the care of a man who hastened to take the reins from his
hand, he bid me follow him to the counting-house. We