[The Celt and Saxon by George Meredith]@TWC D-Link book
The Celt and Saxon

CHAPTER II
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The 'dash of the mother' was thrown in to make Adiante, softer, and leave a loophole for her relenting.
The master of Earlsfont stood for a promise of beauty in his issue, requiring to be softened at the mouth and along the brows, even in men.
He was tall, and had clear Greek outlines: the lips were locked metal, thin as edges of steel, and his eyes, when he directed them on the person he addressed or the person speaking, were as little varied by motion of the lids as eyeballs of a stone bust.

If they expressed more, because they were not sculptured eyes, it was the expression of his high and frigid nature rather than any of the diversities pertaining to sentiment and shades of meaning.
'You have had the bequest of an estate,' Mr.Adister said, to compliment him by touching on his affairs.
'A small one; not a quarter of a county,' said Patrick.
'Productive, sir ?' ''Tis a tramp of discovery, sir, to where bog ends and cultivation begins.' 'Bequeathed to you exclusively over the head of your elder brother, I understand.' Patrick nodded assent.

'But my purse is Philip's, and my house, and my horses.' 'Not bequeathed by a member of your family ?' 'By a distant cousin, chancing to have been one of my godmothers.' 'Women do these things,' Mr.Adister said, not in perfect approbation of their doings.
'And I think too, it might have gone to the elder,' Patrick replied to his tone.
'It is not your intention to be an idle gentleman ?' 'No, nor a vagrant Irishman, sir.' 'You propose to sit down over there ?' 'When I've more brains to be of service to them and the land, I do.' Mr.Adister pulled the arm of his chair.

'The professions are crammed.
An Irish gentleman owning land might do worse.

I am in favour of some degree of military training for all gentlemen.


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