Beauchamp's Career. Complete
Реклама. ООО «ЛитРес», ИНН: 7719571260.
Оглавление
George Meredith. Beauchamp's Career. Complete
CHAPTER I. THE CHAMPION OF HIS COUNTRY
CHAPTER II. UNCLE, NEPHEW, AND ANOTHER
CHAPTER III. CONTAINS BARONIAL VIEWS OF THE PRESENT TIME
CHAPTER IV. A GLIMPSE OF NEVIL IN ACTION
CHAPTER V. RENEE
CHAPTER VI. LOVE IN VENICE
CHAPTER VII. AN AWAKENING FOR BOTH
CHAPTER VIII. A NIGHT ON THE ADRIATIC
CHAPTER IX. MORNING AT SEA UNDER THE ALPS
CHAPTER X. A SINGULAR COUNCIL
CHAPTER XI. CAPTAIN BASKELETT
CHAPTER XII. AN INTERVIEW WITH THE INFAMOUS DR. SHRAPNEL
CHAPTER XIII. A SUPERFINE CONSCIENCE
CHAPTER XIV. THE LEADING ARTICLE AND MR. TIMOTHY TURBOT
CHAPTER XV. CECILIA HALKETT
CHAPTER XVI. A PARTIAL DISPLAY OF BEAUCHAMP IN HIS COLOURS
CHAPTER XVII. HIS FRIEND AND FOE
CHAPTER XVIII. CONCERNING THE ACT OF CANVASSING
CHAPTER XIX. LORD PALMET, AND CERTAIN ELECTORS OF BEVISHAM
CHAPTER XX. A DAY AT ITCHINCOPE
CHAPTER XXI. THE QUESTION AS TO THE EXAMINATION OF THE WHIGS, AND THE
CHAPTER XXII. THE DRIVE INTO BEVISHAM
CHAPTER XXIII. TOURDESTELLE
CHAPTER XXIV. HIS HOLIDAY
CHAPTER XXV. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BOAT
CHAPTER XXVI. MR. BLACKBURN TUCKHAM
CHAPTER XXVII. A SHORT SIDELOOK AT THE ELECTION
CHAPTER XXVIII. TOUCHING A YOUNG LADY’S HEART AND HER INTELLECT
CHAPTER XXIX. THE EPISTLE OF DR. SHRAPNEL TO COMMANDER BEAUCHAMP
CHAPTER XXX. THE BAITING OF DR. SHRAPNEL
CHAPTER XXXI. SHOWING A CHIVALROUS GENTLEMAN SET IN MOTION
CHAPTER XXXII. AN EFFORT TO CONQUER CECILIA IN BEAUCHAMP’S FASHION
CHAPTER XXXIII. THE FIRST ENCOUNTER AT STEYNHAM
CHAPTER XXXIV. THE FACE OF RENEE
CHAPTER XXXV. THE RIDE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
CHAPTER XXXVI. PURSUIT OF THE APOLOGY OF Mr. ROMFREY TO DR. SHRAPNEL
CHAPTER XXXVII. CECILIA CONQUERED
CHAPTER XXXVIII. LORD AVONLEY
CHAPTER XXXIX. BETWEEN BEAUCHAMP AND CECILIA
CHAPTER XL. A TRIAL OF HIM
CHAPTER XLI. A LAME VICTORY
CHAPTER XLII. THE TWO PASSIONS
CHAPTER XLIII. THE EARL OF ROMFREY AND THE COUNTESS
CHAPTER XLIV. THE NEPHEWS OF THE EARL, AND ANOTHER EXHIBITION OF THE TWO
CHAPTER XLV. A LITTLE PLOT AGAINST CECILIA
CHAPTER XLVI. AS IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN FORESEEN
CHAPTER XLVII. THE REFUSAL OF HIM
CHAPTER XLVIII. OF THE TRIAL AWAITING THE EARL OF ROMFREY
CHAPTER XLIX. A FABRIC OF BARONIAL DESPOTISM CRUMBLE
CHAPTER L. AT THE COTTAGE ON THE COMMON
CHAPTER LI. IN THE NIGHT
CHAPTER LII. QUESTION OF A PILGRIMAGE AND AN ACT OF PENANCE
CHAPTER LIII. THE APOLOGY TO DR. SHRAPNEL
CHAPTER LIV. THE FRUITS OF THE APOLOGY
CHAPTER LV. WITHOUT LOVE
CHAPTER LVI. THE LAST OF NEVIL BEAUCHAMP
Отрывок из книги
The Honourable Everard Romfrey came of a race of fighting earls, toughest of men, whose high, stout, Western castle had weathered our cyclone periods of history without changeing hands more than once, and then but for a short year or two, as if to teach the original possessors the wisdom of inclining to the stronger side. They had a queen’s chamber in it, and a king’s; and they stood well up against the charge of having dealt darkly with the king. He died among them—how has not been told. We will not discuss the conjectures here. A savour of North Sea foam and ballad pirates hangs about the early chronicles of the family. Indications of an ancestry that had lived between the wave and the cloud were discernible in their notions of right and wrong. But a settlement on solid earth has its influences. They were chivalrous knights bannerets, and leaders in the tented field, paying and taking fair ransom for captures; and they were good landlords, good masters blithely followed to the wars. Sing an old battle of Normandy, Picardy, Gascony, and you celebrate deeds of theirs. At home they were vexatious neighbours to a town of burghers claiming privileges: nor was it unreasonable that the Earl should flout the pretensions of the town to read things for themselves, documents, titleships, rights, and the rest. As well might the flat plain boast of seeing as far as the pillar. Earl and town fought the fight of Barons and Commons in epitome. The Earl gave way; the Barons gave way. Mighty men may thrash numbers for a time; in the end the numbers will be thrashed into the art of beating their teachers. It is bad policy to fight the odds inch by inch. Those primitive school masters of the million liked it, and took their pleasure in that way. The Romfreys did not breed warriors for a parade at Court; wars, though frequent, were not constant, and they wanted occupation: they may even have felt that they were bound in no common degree to the pursuit of an answer to what may be called the parent question of humanity: Am I thy master, or thou mine? They put it to lords of other castles, to town corporations, and sometimes brother to brother: and notwithstanding that the answer often unseated and once discastled them, they swam back to their places, as born warriors, urged by a passion for land, are almost sure to do; are indeed quite sure, so long as they multiply sturdily, and will never take no from Fortune. A family passion for land, that survives a generation, is as effective as genius in producing the object it conceives; and through marriages and conflicts, the seizure of lands, and brides bearing land, these sharp-feeding eagle-eyed earls of Romfrey spied few spots within their top tower’s wide circle of the heavens not their own.
It is therefore manifest that they had the root qualities, the prime active elements, of men in perfection, and notably that appetite to flourish at the cost of the weaker, which is the blessed exemplification of strength, and has been man’s cheerfulest encouragement to fight on since his comparative subjugation (on the whole, it seems complete) of the animal world. By-and-by the struggle is transferred to higher ground, and we begin to perceive how much we are indebted to the fighting spirit. Strength is the brute form of truth. No conspicuously great man was born of the Romfreys, who were better served by a succession of able sons. They sent undistinguished able men to army and navy—lieutenants given to be critics of their captains, but trustworthy for their work. In the later life of the family, they preferred the provincial state of splendid squires to Court and political honours. They were renowned shots, long-limbed stalking sportsmen in field and bower, fast friends, intemperate enemies, handsome to feminine eyes, resembling one another in build, and mostly of the Northern colour, or betwixt the tints, with an hereditary nose and mouth that cried Romfrey from faces thrice diluted in cousinships.
.....
‘Your duty! it’s like taking up a dice-box, and flinging once, to certain ruin!’
‘I must oppose my father to you, friend. Do you not understand duty to parents? They say the English are full of the idea of duty.’
.....