This from good-natured, tender-hearted Parson Frank!
I cried out hotly that 'those Lesters' had done this. They had
always been set against us, and any one could talk over Mr. Frank.
My father shook his head. He said Frank Fordyce was not weak, but
all the stronger for his gentleness and charity; and, moreover, that
he was quite right--to our shame and grief be it spoken--quite
right.
It was true that the first information had been given by Sir Horace
Lester, Mrs. Fordyce's brother, but it had not been lightly spoken
like the daughter's chatter; and my father himself had found it only
too true, so that he could not conscientiously call Griffith worthy
of such a creature as Ellen Fordyce.
Poor Griff, he had been idle and impracticable over his legal
studies, which no persuasion would make him view as otherwise than a
sort of nominal training for a country gentleman; nor had he ever
believed or acted upon the fact that the Earlscombe property was not
an unlimited fortune, such as would permit him to dispense with any
profession, and spend time and money like the youths with whom he
associated. Still, this might have been condoned as part of the
effervescence which had excited him ever since my father had
succeeded to the estate, and patience might still have waited for
greater wisdom; but there had been graver complaints of
irregularities, which were forcing his friend to dissolve
partnership with him.
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