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Page 43
Various things occurred to put off the doctor's plan of laying by.
Mrs. Adams had an illness, that rendered a residence abroad necessary
for a winter or two. The eldest boy must go to Eton. As their mamma
was not at home, the little girls were sent to school. Bad as Mrs.
Adams's management was, it was better than no management at all. If
the doctor had given up his entertainments, his "friends" would have
said he was going down in the world, and his patients would have
imagined him less skilful; besides, notwithstanding his increased
expenditure, he found he had ample means, not to lay by, but to spend
on without debt or difficulty. Sometimes his promise to his brother
would cross his mind, but it was soon dispelled by what he had led
himself to believe was the impossibility of attending to it then. When
Mrs. Adams returned, she complained that the children were too much
for her nerves and strength, and her husband's tenderness induced him
to yield his favourite plan of bringing up his girls under his own
roof. In process of time two little ones were added to the four, and
still his means kept pace with his expenses; in short, for ten years
he was a favourite with the class of persons who render favouritism
fortune. It is impossible, within the compass of a tale, to trace the
minuti� of the brothers' history; the children of both were handsome,
intelligent, and in the world's opinion, well educated; John's eldest
daughter was one amongst a thousand for beauty of mind and person;
hers was no glaring display of figure or information. She was gentle,
tender, and affectionate; of a disposition sensitive and attuned to
all those rare virtues in her sphere, which form at once the treasures
of domestic life and the ornaments of society. She it was who soothed
the nervous irritability of her mother's sick chamber and perpetual
peevishness, and graced her father's drawing-room by a presence
that was attractive to both old and young, from its sweetness and
unpretending modesty; her two younger sisters called forth all
her tenderness, from the extreme delicacy of their health; but her
brothers were even greater objects of solicitude--handsome spirited
lads--the eldest waiting for a situation, promised, but not given; the
second also waiting for a cadetship; while the youngest was still at
Eton. These three young men thought it incumbent on them to evince
their belief in their father's prosperity by their expenditure, and
accordingly they spent much more than the sons of a professional man
ought to spend under any circumstances. Of all waitings, the waiting
upon patronage is the most tedious and the most enervating to the
waiter. Dr. Adams felt it in all its bitterness when his sons' bills
came to be paid; but he consoled himself, also, for his dilatoriness
with regard to a provision for his daughters--it was impossible to lay
by while his children were being educated; but the moment his eldest
sons got the appointments they were promised, he would certainly save,
or insure, or do something.
People who only _talk_ about doing "something," generally end by doing
"nothing." Another year passed; Mrs. Adams was still an invalid, the
younger girls more delicate than ever, the boys waiting, as before,
their promised appointments, and more extravagant than ever; and Miss
Adams had made a conquest which even her father thought worthy of her.
The gentleman who had become really attached to this beautiful girl
was of a high family, who were sufficiently charmed with the object
of his affections to give their full sanction, as far as person
and position were concerned; but the prudent father of the would-be
bridegroom thought it right to take an early opportunity of waiting
upon the doctor, stating his son's prospects, and frankly asking what
sum Dr. Adams proposed settling on his daughter. Great, indeed, was
his astonishment at the reply--"He should not be able to give his
daughter anything _immediately_, but at his death." The doctor, for
the first time for many years, felt the bitterness of his _false
position_. He hesitated, degraded by the knowledge that he must sink
in the opinion of the man of the world by whom he was addressed; he
was irritated at his want of available funds being known; and though
well aware that the affections of his darling child were bound up in
the son of the very gentlemanly but most prudent person who sat before
him, he was so high and so irritable in his bearing, that the fathers
parted, not in anger, but in any thing but good feeling.
Sir Augustus Barry was not slow to set before his son the
disadvantages of a union where the extravagant habits of Miss Adams
had no more stable support than her father's life; he argued that a
want of forethought in the parents would be likely to produce a want
of forethought in the children; and knowing well what could be done
with such means as Dr. Adams had had at his command for years, he was
not inclined to put a kind construction upon so total a want of the
very quality which he considered the best a man could possess; after
some delay, and much consideration of the matter, he told his son that
he really could not consent to his marriage with a penniless bride.
And Dr. Adams, finding that the old gentleman, with a total want of
that delicacy which moneyed men do not frequently possess, had spoken
of what he termed too truly and too strongly his "heartless" want of
forethought, and characterised as a selfishness the indulgence of a
love for display and extravagance, when children were to be placed in
the world and portioned--insulted the son for the fault of the father,
and forbade his daughter to receive him.
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