[Springhaven by R. D. Blackmore]@TWC D-Link bookSpringhaven CHAPTER XXXI 11/14
He might have repented of it, if he had lived longer; and I feel ashamed to speak of it, after such a case as yours.
But behold, how greatly it has been for my advantage! Without that, I might now have been a true and simple Englishman!" Carne (who had taken most kindly to the fortune which made him an untrue Englishman) clapped his breast with both hands; not proudly, as a Frenchman does, nor yet with that abashment and contempt of demonstration which make a true Briton very clumsy in such doings; while Daniel Tugwell, being very solid, and by no means "emotional"-- as people call it nowadays--was looking at him, to the utmost of his power (which would have been greater by daylight), with gratitude, and wonder, and consideration, and some hesitation about his foreign sentiments. "Well, sir," said Dan, with the usual impulse of the British workman, "is there any sort of work as you could find for me, to earn my own living, and be able to think afterwards ?" "There is work of a noble kind, such as any man of high nature may be proud to share in, to which it is possible that I might get an entrance for you, if there should be a vacancy; work of high character, such as admits of no higgling and haggling, and splitting of halfpence, but an independent feeling, and a sense of advancing the liberty of mankind, without risking a penny, but putting many guineas into one's own pocket, and so becoming fitted for a loftier line of life." "Is it smuggling, sir ?" Daniel asked, with sore misgivings, for he had been brought up to be very shy of that.
"Many folk consider that quite honest; but father calls it roguery--though I never shall hear any more of his opinions now." "Sigh not, friend Daniel; sigh not so heavily at your own emancipation." Carne never could resist the chance of a little bit of sarcasm, though it often injured his own plots.
"Smuggling is a very fine pursuit, no doubt, but petty in comparison with large affairs like ours.
No, Dan Tugwell, I am not a smuggler, but a high politician, and a polisher of mankind.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|