The Twins | Page 5

Martin Farquhar Tupper

even suffered filial presumption (it could not be affection--O dear, no!)
to go so far as gently to expostulate at what he fancied wrong; he never
gave her reason to contrast, with happy self-complacence, her own
soul's state with Charles's, however she could with Julian's: and then,
too, she would indulgently allow her foolish mind--a woman's, though
a parent's--to admire that tall, black, bandit-looking son, above the
slight build, the delicate features, and almost feminine elegance of his
brother: she found Julian always ready to countenance and pamper her
gayest wishes, and was glad to make him her escort every where--at
balls, and fêtes, and races, and archery parties; while as to Charles, he
would be the stay-at-home, the milk-sop, the learned pundit, the pious
prayer-monger, any thing but the ladies' man. Yes: it is little wonder
that Mrs. Tracy's heart clave to Julian, the masculine image of herself;
while it barely tolerated Charles, who was a rarefied and idealized
likeness of the absent and forgotten Tracy.
But the mother--and there are many silly mothers, almost as many as

silly men and silly maids--in her admiration of the outward form of
manliness, overlooked the true strength, and chivalry, and nobleness of
mind which shone supreme in Charles. How would Julian have acted in
such a case as this?--a sheep had wandered down the cliff's face to a
narrow ledge of rock, whence it could not come back again, for there
was no room to turn: Julian would have pelted it, and set his bull-dog at
it, and rejoiced to have seen the poor animal's frantic leaps from
shingly shelf to shelf, till it would be dashed to pieces. But how did
Charles act? With the utmost courage, and caution, and presence of
mind, he crept down, and, at the risk of his life, dragged the bleating,
unreluctant creature up again; it really seemed as if the ungrateful poor
dumb brute recognised its humane friend, and suffered him to rescue it
without a struggle or a motion that might have endangered both.
Again: a burly costermonger was belabouring his donkey, and the
wretched beast fell beneath his cudgel: strange to say, Julian and
Charles were walking together that time; and the same sight affected
each so differently, that the one sided with the cruel man, and the other
with his suffering victim: Charles, in momentary indignation, rushed up
to the fellow, wrested the cudgel from his hand, and flung it over the
cliff; while Julian was so base, so cowardly, as to reward such generous
interference, by holding his weaker brother's arms, and inviting the
wrathful costermonger to expend the remainder of his phrensy on
unlucky Charles. Yes, and when at home Mrs. Tracy heard all this, she
was silly enough, wicked enough, to receive her truly noble son with
ridicule, and her other one, the child of her disgrace, with approval.
"It will teach you, Master Charles, not to meddle with common people
and their donkeys; and you may thank your brother Julian for giving
you a lesson how a gentleman should behave."
Poor Charles! but poorer Julian, and poorest Mrs. Tracy!
It would be easy, if need were, to enumerate multiplied examples
tending towards the same end--a large, masculine-featured mother's
foolish preference of the loud, bold, worldly animal, before the meek,
kind, noble, spiritual. And the results of all these many matters were,
that now, at twenty years of age, Charles found himself, as it were,

alone in a strange land, with many common friends indeed abroad, but
at home no nearer, dearer ties to string his heart's dank lyre withal;
neither mother nor brother, nor any other kind familiar face, to look
upon his gentleness in love, or to sympathize with his affections,
unapprehended, unappreciated: so--while Mrs. Tracy was the showy,
gay, and vapid thing she ever had been, and Julian the same impetuous
mother's son which his very nurse could say she knew him--Charles
grew up a shy and silent youth, necessarily reserved, for lack of some
one to understand him; necessarily chilled, for want of somebody to
love him.
CHAPTER III.
THE ARRIVAL.
THE young men were thus situated as regards both the world and one
another, and Mrs. Tracy had almost entirely forgotten the fact, that she
possessed a piece of goods so supererogatory as her husband (a
property too which her children had never quite realized), when all on a
sudden, one ordinary morning, the postman's-knock brought to her
breakfast-table at Burleigh-Singleton the following epistle:
"British Channel, Thursday, March 11th, 1842. "The Sir William
Elphinston, E.I.M.
"DEAR JANE: You will be surprised to find that you are to see me so
soon, I dare say, especially as it is now some years since you will have
heard from me. The reason is, I have been long
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 47
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.