“Yes, but I did not ask him till ten o’clock.
I asked you at half-past nine, because I wished to
hear about Danvers and Saxboro’, and also to
prepare you somewhat for your introduction to your
cousin. I must be brief as to the last, for it
is only five minutes to the hour, and he is a man
likely to be punctual. Kenelm is in all ways
your opposite. I don’t know whether he is
cleverer or less clever; there is no scale of measurement
between you: but he is wholly void of ambition,
and might possibly assist yours. He can do what
he likes with Sir Peter; and considering how your
poor father—a worthy man, but cantankerous—harassed
and persecuted Sir Peter, because Kenelm came between
the estate and you, it is probable that Sir Peter bears
you a grudge, though Kenelm declares him incapable
of it; and it would be well if you could annul that
grudge in the father by conciliating the goodwill
of the son.”
“I should be glad so to annul it; but what is
Kenelm’s weak side?—the turf? the
hunting-field? women? poetry? One can only conciliate
a man by getting on his weak side.”
“Hist! I see him from the windows.
Kenelm’s weak side was, when I knew him some
years ago, and I rather fancy it still is—”
“Well, make haste! I hear his ring at your
door-bell.”
“A passionate longing to find ideal truth in
real life.”
“Ah!” said Gordon, “as I thought,—a
mere dreamer”
CHAPTER V.
KENELM entered the room. The young cousins were
introduced, shook hands, receded a step, and gazed
at each other. It is scarcely possible to conceive
a greater contrast outwardly than that between the
two Chillingly representatives of the rising generation.
Each was silently impressed by the sense of that contrast.
Each felt that the contrast implied antagonism, and
that if they two met in the same arena it must be
as rival combatants; still, by some mysterious intuition,
each felt a certain respect for the other, each divined
in the other a power that he could not fairly estimate,
but against which his own power would be strongly
tasked to contend. So might exchange looks a
thorough-bred deer-hound and a half-bred mastiff:
the bystander could scarcely doubt which was the nobler
animal; but he might hesitate which to bet on, if
the two came to deadly quarrel. Meanwhile the
thorough-bred deer-hound and the half-bred mastiff
sniffed at each other in polite salutation. Gordon
was the first to give tongue.
“I have long wished to know you personally,”
said he, throwing into his voice and manner that delicate
kind of deference which a well-born cadet owes to
the destined head of his house. “I cannot
conceive how I missed you last night at Lady Beaumanoir’s,
where Mivers tells me he met you; but I left early,”
Copyrights
Kenelm Chillingly — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
