Arthur that is to
be, with perfect kindness; where the good people of the county won't
visit you; and where, by Gad, sir, I shall be shy of visiting you myself,
for I'm a plain-spoken man, and I own to you that I like to live with
gentlemen for my companions; where you will have to live, with
rum-and-water--drinking gentlemen--farmers, and drag through your life
the young husband of an old woman, who, if she doesn't quarrel with your
mother, will at least cost that lady her position in society, and drag
her down into that dubious caste into which you must inevitably fall. It
is no affair of mine, my good sir. I am not angry. Your downfall will not
hurt me farther than that it will extinguish the hopes I had of seeing my
family once more taking its place in the world. It is only your mother
and yourself that will be ruined. And I pity you both from my soul. Pass
the claret: it is some I sent to your poor father; I remember I bought it
at poor Lord Levant's sale. But of course," added the Major, smacking the
wine, "having engaged yourself, you will do what becomes you as a man of
honour, however fatal your promise may be.
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