212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 529
after Sir John had taken his leave. " I told you that those dear
children would not be forsaken." And I would no more try and
persuade her that the European Review was not ordained of all
time to afford maintenance to Philip, than I would induce her to
turn Mormon, and accept all the consequences to which ladies
must submit when they make profession of that creed.
"You see, my love," I say to the partner of my existence,
" what other things must have been ordained of all time as well as
Philip's appointment to be sub-editor of the European Review. It
must have been decreed ab initio that Lady Plinlimmon should
give evening parties, in order that she might offend Lady Tregarvan
by not asking her to those parties. It must have been ordained
by fate that Lady Tregarvan should be of a jealous disposition, so
that she might hate Lady Plinlimmon, and was to work upon her
husband, and inspire him with anger and revolt against his chief.
It must have been ruled by destiny that Tregarvan should be
rather a weak and wordy personage, fancying that he had a talent
for literary composition. Else he would not have thought of setting
up the Review. Else he would never have been angry with
Lord Plinlimmon for not inviting him to tea. Else he would not
have engaged Philip as sub-editor. So, you see, in order to bring
about this event, and put a couple of hundred a year into Philip
Firmin's pocket, the Tregarvans have to be born from the earliest
times; the Plinlimmons have to spring up in the remotest ages,
and come down to the present day : Dr. Firmin has to be a rogue,
and undergo his destiny of cheating his son of money :—all mankind
up to the origin of our race are involved in your proposition ;
and we actually arrive at Adam and Eve, who are but fulfilling
their destiny, which was to be the ancestors of Philip Firmin."
" Even in our first parents there was doubt and scepticism and
misgiving," says the lady, with strong emphasis on the words.
" If you mean to say that there is no such thing as a Superior
Power watching over us, and ordaining things for our good, you are
an atheist—and such a thing as an atheist does not exist in the
world, and I would not believe you if you said you were one twenty
times over."
I mention these points by the way, and as samples of ladylike
logic. I acknowledge that Philip himself, as he looks back at his
past career, is very much moved. "I do not deny," he says
gravely, " that these things happened in the natural order. I say I
am grateful for what happened; and look back at the past not without
awe. In great grief and danger maybe, I have had timely rescue.
Under great suffering I have met with supreme consolation. When
the trial has seemed almost too hard for me it has ended, and our
11 2 L