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616 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
and gin, offer to go and chare at Philip's house for nothing, and
nurse the dear children ? Did not Goodenough say, " If you are
in need, my dear fellow, of course you know where to come ;" and
did he not actually give two prescriptions, one for poor Charlotte,
and one for fifty pounds to be taken immediately, which he handed
to the nurse by mistake ? You may be sure she did not appropriate
the money, for of course you know that the nurse was Mrs. Brandon.
Charlotte has one remorse in her life. She owns she was jealous of
the Little Sister. And now when that gentle life is over, when
Philip's poverty trials are ended, when the children go sometimes
and look wistfully at the grave of their dear Caroline, friend
Charlotte leans her head against her husband's shoulder, and owns
humbly how good, how brave, how generous a friend Heaven sent
them in that humble defender.
Have you ever felt the pinch of poverty 1 In many cases it is
like the dentist's chair, more dreadful in the contemplation than in
the actual suffering. Philip says he never was fairly beaten but on
that day when, in reply to his solicitation to have his due, Mrs.
Baynes's friend, Captain Swang, brought him the open ten-pound
note. It was not much of a blow : the hand which dealt it made
the hurt so keen. " I remember," says he, " bursting out crying
at school, because a big boy hit me a slight tap, and other boys
said, ' Oh, you coward !' It was that I knew the boy at home,
and my parents had been kind to him. It seemed to me a wrong
that Bumps should strike me," said Philip ; and he looked, while
telling the story, as if he could cry about this injury now. I hope
he has revenged himself by presenting coals of fire to his wife's
relations. But to this day, when he is enjoying good health and
competence, it is not safe to mention mothers-in-law in his presence.
He fumes, shouts, and rages against them, as if all were like his ;
and his, I have been told, is a lady perfectly well satisfied with
herself and her conduct in this world; and as for the next ________ but
our story does not dare to point so far. It only interests itself
about a little clique of people here below—their griefs, their trials,
their weaknesses, their kindly hearts.
People there are in our history who do not seem to me to
have kindly hearts at all ; and yet perhaps, if a biography could
be written from their point of view, some other novelist might show
how Philip and his biographer were a pair of selfish worldlings unworthy
of credit : how Uncle and Aunt Twysden were most exemplary
people, and so forth. Have I not told you how many people
at New York shook their heads when Philip's name was mentioned,
and intimated a strong opinion that he used his father very ill?
When he fell wounded and bleeding, patron Tregarvan dropped him