Besides, this would keep him under your own eye.'
My father was greatly touched by the kindness, but he thought it
right to set before Mr. Castleford the very worst side of poor
Clarence; declaring that he durst not answer for a boy who had
never, in spite of pains and punishments, learnt to speak truth at
home or abroad, repeating Captain Brydone's dreadful report, and
even adding that, what was most grievous of all, there was an
affectation of piety about him that could scarcely be anything but
self-deceit and hypocrisy. 'Now,' he said, 'my eldest son,
Griffith, is just a boy, makes no profession, is not--as I am afraid
you have seen--exemplary at church, when Clarence sits as meek as a
mouse, but then he is always above-board, frank and straightforward.
You know where to have a high-spirited fellow, who will tame down,
but you never know what will come next with the other. I sometimes
wonder for what error of mine Providence has seen fit to give me
such a son.'
Just then an important message came for Mr. Winslow, and he had to
hurry away, but Mr. Castleford still remained, and presently said,
'Edward, I should like to know what your eyes have been trying to
say all this time.'
'Oh, sir,' I burst out, 'do give him a chance. Indeed he never
means to do wrong. The harm is not in him. He would have been the
best of us all if he had only been let alone.
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