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212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

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560 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP<br />

eyes when a friend came to remonstrate with him : " did she tell<br />

you that she brought me money herself, but we would not use it ?<br />

Look ! I have her little marriage gift yonder in my desk, and pray<br />

God I shall be able to leave it to my children. <strong>The</strong> fact is, the<br />

Doctor has drawn upon me as usual; he is going to make a fortune<br />

next week. I have paid another bill of his. <strong>The</strong> parliamentary<br />

agents are out of town, at their moors in Scotland, I suppose. <strong>The</strong><br />

air of Russell Square is uncommonly wholesome, and when the<br />

babies have had enough of that, why, they must change it for<br />

Brunswick Square. Talk about the country ! what country can be<br />

more quiet than Guilford Street in September ? I stretch out of a<br />

morning, and breathe the mountain air on Ludgate Hill." And<br />

with these dismal pleasantries and jokes our friend chose to put a<br />

good face upon bad fortune. <strong>The</strong> kinsmen of Ringwood offered<br />

hospitality kindly enough, but how was poor Philip to pay railway<br />

expenses for servants, babies, and wife? In this strait Tregarvan<br />

from abroad, having found out some monstrous design of Russ _______<br />

of the Great Power of which he stood in daily terror, and which, as<br />

we are in strict amity with that Power, no other Power shall induce<br />

me to name—Tregarvan wrote to his editor, and communicated to<br />

him in confidence a most prodigious and nefarious plot against the<br />

liberties of all the rest of Europe, in which the Power in question<br />

was engaged, and in a postscript added, " By the way, the Michaelmas<br />

quarter is due, and I send you a cheque," &c. &c. O precious<br />

postscript !<br />

" Didn't I tell you it would be so ?" said my wife, with a selfsatisfied<br />

air. " Was I not certain that succour would come ?"<br />

And succour did come, sure enough ; and a very happy little<br />

party went down to Brighton in a second-class carriage, and got an<br />

extraordinary cheap lodging, and the roses came back to the little<br />

pale cheeks, and mamma was wonderfully invigorated and refreshed,<br />

as all her friends could have seen when the little family came back<br />

to town, only there was such a thick dun fog that it was impossible<br />

to see complexions at all.<br />

When the shooting season was come to an end, the parliamentary<br />

agents who had employed Philip came back to London ; and, I am<br />

happy to say, gave him a cheque for his little account. My wife<br />

cried, "Did I not tell you so?" more than ever. "Is not everything<br />

for the best ? I knew dear Philip would prosper !"<br />

Everything was for the best, was it ? Philip was sure to prosper,<br />

was he ? What do you think of the next news which the poor<br />

fellow brought to us ? One night in December he came to us, and<br />

I saw by his face that some event of importance had befallen him.<br />

" I am almost heart-broken," he said, thumping on the table

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