Volume Iii Part 12 (2/2)

'Why not?'

'Because I like hard work. I am comfortable as I am. I am fond of the sea, and if I live to be a captain my utmost ambition will be fulfilled.

I have seen a good many gentlemen, on board s.h.i.+p and when I have been to the theatre, and they seem to be a poor, helpless lot, as if they did not know what to do with themselves, with their eyegla.s.ses and their high collars.'

'But they don't all wear high collars and eye-gla.s.ses.'

'No, but most of them do.'

'Think of what you give up-the society of high life-your position in the county.'

'I have, and I don't care about it. Swells don't suit me, and I shan't suit them. I don't want to be a landlord where the farmers cannot afford to pay any rent. I don't want to be bothered with a lot of servants who will be most respectful in my presence, and who will laugh at me behind my back. I don't want to be stuck up as a mark for needy adventurers and fawning parasites. I cannot believe that society in England will last long in its present position; that the wealth of the country shall be in the hands of the few, who toil not, neither do they spin, and that the men who make that wealth, without whom it could not exist, shall be stowed away in unhealthy cities to live, and breed, and die in such bitterness of poverty as can be found nowhere else. Does not James the Apostle tell the rich man to go to and howl? and I believe that end is near; that is, as soon as the working man has his political rights-a boon that now cannot be long delayed. No, property of the kind you speak of has no charms for me; rather give me

'”A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep.”

It is thus I can carry out the mission of the age, to break down the barriers created by the prejudices and ignorance of nations, to make men realize by means of international commerce that we are members one of another, and that G.o.d has made of one blood ”all nations that dwell on the face of the earth.”'

'Why, my dear boy,' said the actress, 'you are quite a Radical, and a philosopher as well. Where did you get your ideas from? From the newspapers?'

'Not a bit.'

'Where from then?'

'From the Book of Books-the Bible. I have loved to think of such things in the watches of the night as I have been alone on deck.'

'Well, you have thought to some purpose,' said the actress. 'Wentworth will be delighted. I am sure you will fall in with our plan.'

'What is that?'

'I'll tell you as soon as I have seen Wentworth.'

'You'll hear from me soon,' said the actress, as she seated herself in the train, and glided along the iron road till London was reached in safety and in good time. Nor were Wentworth and his wife sorry at his decision. They infinitely preferred him as he was, and thus the matter was allowed to drop, to the infinite regret of a sharp firm of City lawyers, who were quite ready to do battle for the lad's right, with a chance of making money out of the case somehow before they had done with it. The family lawyers were quite content to let things remain as they were. They had lost money by the family, and had no more wish to trouble themselves about their concerns. There was no chance of anyone coming forward to claim the family honours, and the name of Strahan was dropped out of the book of the baronetage of England for ever.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

ROSE RETIRES FROM THE STAGE.

'I think,' said Rose to her husband that night, 'I shall give up the stage. I have been without an engagement long; I have refused everything of the kind.'

'Yet, darling, you are not growing old.'

'No, it is not that.'

'But what?'

'That I care less and less for the artificial atmosphere of the stage.

We lead such a conventional life and breathe such a conventional air; there is so much of insincerity. ”Suppose any given theatre,” writes Mr.

Thomas Archer in one of his clever essays, ”suppose any given theatre suddenly turned into a Palace of Truth, and all the members of the company forced to state their true opinion of each other's performances, the Palace of Truth would be a pandemonium.” And then there are other considerations.'

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