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Chapter 2 THE CARBURY FAMILY.

Word Count: 3869    |    Released on: 29/11/2017

She has declared she had been cruelly slandered; but she has also shown that she was not a woman whose words about herself could be take

, absolutely and abominably foul as was the entire system by which she was endeavouring to achieve success, far away from honour and honesty as she had been carried by her ready subserviency to the dirty things among which she had lately fallen, neverthele

our years, and then Sir Patrick had returned with some new and higher appointment. For fifteen years, though he had been passionate, imperious, and often cruel, he had never been jealous. A boy and a girl had been born to them, to whom both father and mother had been over indulgent;-but the mother, according to her lights, had endeavoured to do her duty by them. But from the commencement of her life she had been educated in deceit, and her married life had seemed to make the practice of deceit necessary to her. Her mother had run away from her father, and she had been tossed to and fro between this and that protector, sometimes being in danger of wanting any one to care for her, till she had been made sharp, incredulous, and untrustworthy by the difficulties of her position. But she was clever, and had picked up an education and good manners amidst the difficulties of her childhood,-and had been beautiful to look at. To marry and have the command of money, to do her duty correctly, to live in a big house and be respected, had been her ambition,-and during the first fifteen years of her married life she was successful amidst great difficulties. She would smile within five minutes of violent ill-usage. Her husband would even strike her,-and the first effort of her mind would be given to conceal the fact from all the world. In latter years he drank too much, and she struggled hard first to prevent the evil, and then to prevent and to hide the ill effects of the evil. But in doing all this she schemed, and lied,

ertainly encountered hitherto much that was bad. To be scolded, watched, beaten, and sworn at by a choleric old man till she was at last driven out of her house by the violence of his ill-usage; to be taken back as a favour with the assurance that her name would for the remainder of her life be unjustly tarnished; to have her flight constantly thrown in her face; and then at last to become for a year or two the nurse of a dying debauchee, was a high price to pay for such good things as she had hitherto enjoyed. Now at length had come to her a period of relaxation-her reward, her freedom, her chance of happiness. She thought much about herself, and resolved on one or two things. The time for love had gone by, and she would have nothing to do with it. Nor would she marry again for convenience. But she would have friends,-real friends; friends who could help her,-and whom possibly she might help. She would, too, make s

uards, and known to have had a fortune left him by his father, may go very far in getting into debt; and Sir Felix had made full use of all his privileges. His life had been in every way bad. He had become a burden on his mother so heavy,-and on his sister also,-that their life had become one of unavoidable embarrassments. But not for a moment had either of them ever quarrelled with him. Henrietta had been taught by the conduct of both father and mother that every vice might be forgiven in a man and in a son, though every virtue was expected from a woman, and especially from a daughter. The lesson had come to her

his folly she had hardly ventured to say a word to him with the purport of stopping him on his road to ruin. In everything she had spoilt him as a boy, and in everything she still spoilt him as a man. She was almost proud of his vices, and had taken delight i

reached her of this and the other man's success, and,-coming near to her still,-of this and that other woman's earnings in literature. And it had seemed to her that, within moderate limits, she might give a wide field to her hopes. Why should she not add a thousand a year to her income, so that Felix might again live like a gentleman and marry that heiress who, in Lady Ca

nature, a clever woman. She could write after a glib, common-place, sprightly fashion, and had already acquired the knack of spreading all she knew very thin, so that it might cover a vast surface. She had no ambition to write a good book, but was painfully anxious to write a book that the critics should say was good. Had Mr. Broune

o look at, ready-witted, and intelligent. He was very dark, with that soft olive complexion which so generally gives to young men an appearance of aristocratic breeding. His hair, which was never allowed to become long, was nearly black, and was soft and silky without that taint of grease which is so common with silken-headed darlings. His eyes were long, brown in colour, and were made beautiful by the perfect arch of the perfect eyebrow. But perhaps the glory of the face was due more to the finished moulding and fine symmetry of the nose and mouth than to his other features. On his short upper lip he had a moustache as well formed as his eyebrows, but he wore no other beard. The form of his chin too was perfect, but it lacked that sweetness and softness of expression, indicative of softness of heart, which a dimple conveys. He was about five feet nine in height, and was as excellent in figure as in face. It was admitted by men and clamorously asserted by women that no man had ever been more handsome than Felix Carbury, and it was admitted also that he never showed consciousness of his beauty. He had given himself airs on many

lly care." "How can I show that I care more than by wishing to make you my wife?" he had asked. "I don't know that you can, but all the same you don't care," she said. And so that young lady escaped the pit-fall. Now there was another young lady, to whom the reader shall be introduced in time, whom Sir Felix was instigated to pursue with unremitting diligence. Her wealth was not defined, as had been the £40,000 of her predecessor, but was known to be very much greater than that. It was, indeed, generally supposed to be fathomless, bottomless, endless. It was said that in regard to money for ordinary expenditure, money for houses, servants, horses, jewels, and the like, one sum was the same as another to the

rs. This sweetness was altogether lacking to her brother. And her face was a true index of her character. Again, who shall say why the brother and sister had become so opposite to each other; whether they would have been thus different had both been taken away as infants from their father's and mother's training, or whether the girl's virtues were owing altogether to the lower place which she had held in her parent's heart? She, at any rate, had not been spoilt by a title, by the command of money, and by the temptations of too early acqu

epresented by one Roger Carbury, of Carbury Hall. Roger Carbury was a gentleman of whom much will have to be said, but here, at this moment, it need only be to

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Contents

Chapter 1 THREE EDITORS. Chapter 2 THE CARBURY FAMILY. Chapter 3 THE BEARGARDEN. Chapter 4 MADAME MELMOTTE'S BALL. Chapter 5 AFTER THE BALL. Chapter 6 ROGER CARBURY AND PAUL MONTAGUE. Chapter 7 MENTOR. Chapter 8 LOVE-SICK. Chapter 9 THE GREAT RAILWAY TO VERA CRUZ. Chapter 10 MR. FISKER'S SUCCESS. Chapter 11 LADY CARBURY AT HOME.
Chapter 12 SIR FELIX IN HIS MOTHER'S HOUSE.
Chapter 13 THE LONGESTAFFES.
Chapter 14 CARBURY MANOR.
Chapter 15 YOU SHOULD REMEMBER THAT I AM HIS MOTHER.
Chapter 16 THE BISHOP AND THE PRIEST.
Chapter 17 MARIE MELMOTTE HEARS A LOVE TALE.
Chapter 18 RUBY RUGGLES HEARS A LOVE TALE.
Chapter 19 HETTA CARBURY HEARS A LOVE TALE.
Chapter 20 LADY POMONA'S DINNER PARTY.
Chapter 21 EVERYBODY GOES TO THEM.
Chapter 22 LORD NIDDERDALE'S MORALITY.
Chapter 23 YES;-I'M A BARONET.
Chapter 24 MILES GRENDALL'S TRIUMPH.
Chapter 25 IN GROSVENOR SQUARE.
Chapter 26 MRS. HURTLE.
Chapter 27 MRS. HURTLE GOES TO THE PLAY.
Chapter 28 DOLLY LONGESTAFFE GOES INTO THE CITY.
Chapter 29 MISS MELMOTTE'S COURAGE.
Chapter 30 MR. MELMOTTE'S PROMISE.
Chapter 31 MR. BROUNE HAS MADE UP HIS MIND.
Chapter 32 LADY MONOGRAM.
Chapter 33 JOHN CRUMB.
Chapter 34 RUBY RUGGLES OBEYS HER GRANDFATHER.
Chapter 35 MELMOTTE'S GLORY.
Chapter 36 MR. BROUNE'S PERILS.
Chapter 37 THE BOARD-ROOM.
Chapter 38 PAUL MONTAGUE'S TROUBLES.
Chapter 39 I DO LOVE HIM.
Chapter 40 UNANIMITY IS THE VERY SOUL OF THESE THINGS.
Chapter 41 ALL PREPARED.
Chapter 42 CAN YOU BE READY IN TEN MINUTES
Chapter 43 THE CITY ROAD.
Chapter 44 THE COMING ELECTION.
Chapter 45 MR. MELMOTTE IS PRESSED FOR TIME.
Chapter 46 ROGER CARBURY AND HIS TWO FRIENDS.
Chapter 47 MRS. HURTLE AT LOWESTOFT.
Chapter 48 RUBY A PRISONER.
Chapter 49 SIR FELIX MAKES HIMSELF READY.
Chapter 50 THE JOURNEY TO LIVERPOOL.
Chapter 51 WHICH SHALL IT BE
Chapter 52 THE RESULTS OF LOVE AND WINE.
Chapter 53 A DAY IN THE CITY.
Chapter 54 THE INDIA OFFICE.
Chapter 55 CLERICAL CHARITIES.
Chapter 56 FATHER BARHAM VISITS LONDON.
Chapter 57 LORD NIDDERDALE TRIES HIS HAND AGAIN.
Chapter 58 MR. SQUERCUM IS EMPLOYED.
Chapter 59 THE DINNER.
Chapter 60 MISS LONGESTAFFE'S LOVER.
Chapter 61 LADY MONOGRAM PREPARES FOR THE PARTY.
Chapter 62 THE PARTY.
Chapter 63 MR. MELMOTTE ON THE DAY OF THE ELECTION.
Chapter 64 THE ELECTION.
Chapter 65 MISS LONGESTAFFE WRITES HOME.
Chapter 66 SO SHALL BE MY ENMITY.
Chapter 67 SIR FELIX PROTECTS HIS SISTER.
Chapter 68 MISS MELMOTTE DECLARES HER PURPOSE.
Chapter 69 MELMOTTE IN PARLIAMENT.
Chapter 70 SIR FELIX MEDDLES WITH MANY MATTERS.
Chapter 71 JOHN CRUMB FALLS INTO TROUBLE.
Chapter 72 ASK HIMSELF.
Chapter 73 MARIE'S FORTUNE.
Chapter 74 MELMOTTE MAKES A FRIEND.
Chapter 75 IN BRUTON STREET.
Chapter 76 HETTA AND HER LOVER.
Chapter 77 ANOTHER SCENE IN BRUTON STREET.
Chapter 78 MISS LONGESTAFFE AGAIN AT CAVERSHAM.
Chapter 79 THE BREHGERT CORRESPONDENCE.
Chapter 80 RUBY PREPARES FOR SERVICE.
Chapter 81 MR. COHENLUPE LEAVES LONDON.
Chapter 82 MARIE'S PERSEVERANCE.
Chapter 83 MELMOTTE AGAIN AT THE HOUSE.
Chapter 84 PAUL MONTAGUE'S VINDICATION.
Chapter 85 BREAKFAST IN BERKELEY SQUARE.
Chapter 86 THE MEETING IN BRUTON STREET.
Chapter 87 DOWN AT CARBURY.
Chapter 88 THE INQUEST.
Chapter 89 THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE.
Chapter 90 HETTA'S SORROW.
Chapter 91 THE RIVALS.
Chapter 92 HAMILTON K. FISKER AGAIN.
Chapter 93 A TRUE LOVER.
Chapter 94 JOHN CRUMB'S VICTORY.
Chapter 95 THE LONGESTAFFE MARRIAGES.
Chapter 96 WHERE THE WILD ASSES QUENCH THEIR THIRST.
Chapter 97 MRS. HURTLE'S FATE.
Chapter 98 MARIE MELMOTTE'S FATE.
Chapter 99 LADY CARBURY AND MR. BROUNE.
Chapter 100 DOWN IN SUFFOLK.
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