第171章 BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS (2)

I almost wish he wasn't to go.You don't seem quite to like it, doctor?' 'Yes I do,' said Mr Gibson in a more cheerful tone than before.'It can't be helped now without doing a mischief,' thought he to himself.'Why, squire, I think it's a great honour to have such a son.I envy you, that's what I do.Here's a lad of three or four and twenty distinguishing himself in more ways than one, and as simple and affectionate at home as any fellow need to be - not a bit set up.' 'Ay, ay; he's twice as much a son to me as Osborne, who has been all his life set up on nothing at all, as one may say.'Come, squire, I must not hear anything against Osborne; we may praise one, without hitting at the other.Osborne has not had the strong health which has enabled Roger to work as he has done.I met a man who knew his tutor at Trinity the other day, and of course we began cracking about Roger - it's not every day that one can reckon a senior wrangler amongst one's friends, and I'm nearly as proud of the lad as you are.This Mr Mason told me the tutor said that only half of Roger's success was owing to his mental powers; the other half was owing to his perfect health, which enabled him to work harder and more continuously than most men without suffering.He said that in all his experience he had never known any one with an equal capacity for mental labour; and that he could come again with a fresh appetite to his studies after shorter intervals of rest than most.Now I, being a doctor, trace a good deal of his superiority to the material cause of a thoroughly good constitution, which Osborne has not got.' 'Osborne might have if he got out o' doors more,' said the squire, moodily;'but except when he can loaf into Hollingford he does not care to go out at all.I hope,' he continued, with a glance of sudden suspicion at Mr Gibson, 'he's not after one of your girls? I don't mean any offence, you know; but he'll have the estate, and it won't be free, and he must marry money.I don't think I could allow it in Roger; but Osborne is the eldest son, you know.' Mr Gibson reddened; he was offended for a moment.Then the partial truth of what the squire said was presented to his mind, and he remembered their old friendship, so he spoke quietly, if shortly.'I don't believe there's anything of the kind going on.I'm not much at home, you know; but I've never heard or seen anything that should make me suppose that there is.When I do, I'll let you know.' 'Now, Gibson, don't go and be offended.I am glad for the boys to have a pleasant house to go to, and I thank you and Mrs Gibson for making it pleasant.Only keep off love; it can come to no good.That's all.I don't believe Osborne will ever earn a farthing to keep a wife during my life, and if I were to die to-morrow, she would have to bring some money to clear the estate.And if I do speak as I should not have done formerly - a little sharp or so - why, it's because I've been worried by many a care no one knows anything of.' 'I'm not going to take offence,' said Mr Gibson, 'but let us understand each other clearly.If you don't want your sons to come as much to my house as they do, tell them so yourself.I like the lads, and am glad to see them; but if they do come, you must take the consequences, whatever they are, and not blame me, or them either, for what may happen from the frequent intercourse between two young men and two young women; and what is more, though, as I said, I see nothing whatever of the kind you fear at present, and have promised to tell you of the first symptoms I do see, yet farther than that I won't go.If there is an attachment at any future time, I won't interfere.' 'I should not so much mind if Roger fell in love with your Molly.He can fight for himself, you see, and she's an uncommon nice girl.My poor wife was so fond of her,' answered the squire.'It's Osborne and the estate I'm thinking of!' 'Well, then, tell him not to come near us.I shall be sorry, but you will be safe.' 'I'll think about it; but he's difficult to manage.I've always to get my blood well up before I can speak my mind to him.' Mr Gibson was leaving the room, but at these words he turned and laid his hand on the squire's arm.'Take my advice, squire.As I said, there is no harm done as yet, as far as I know.Prevention is better than cure.Speak out, but speak gently to Osborne, and do it at once.I shall understand how it is if he does not show his face for some months in my house.If you speak gently to him, he'll take the advice as from a friend.If he can assure you there's no danger, of course he'll come just as usual, when he likes.' It was all very fine giving the squire this good advice; but as Osborne had already formed the very kind of marriage his father most deprecated, it did not act quite as well as Mr Gibson had hoped.The squire began the conversation with unusual self-control; but he grew irritated when Osborne denied his father's right to interfere in any marriage he might contemplate;denied it with a certain degree of doggedness and weariness of the subject that drove the squire into one of his passions; and although on after reflection he remembered that he had his son's promise and solemn word not to think of either Cynthia or Molly for his wife, yet the father and son had passed through one of those altercations which help to estrange men for life.