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Demos. George Gissing
Читать онлайн.Название Demos
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Автор произведения George Gissing
Жанр Зарубежная классика
Издательство Public Domain
‘I don’t see the use of it,’ said the other.
‘What do you mean? I suppose you must make your living somehow?’
‘Arry laughed, and in such a way that Richard looked at him keenly, his brow gathering darkness.
‘What are you laughing at?’
‘Why, at you. There’s no more need for me to work for a living than there is for you. As if I didn’t know that!’
‘Who’s been putting that into your head?’
No scruple prevented the lad from breaking a promise he had made to Mr. Keene, the journalist, when the latter explained to him the disposition of the deceased Richard Mutimer’s estate; it was only that he preferred to get himself credit for acuteness.
‘Why, you don’t think I was to be kept in the dark about a thing like that? It’s just like you to want to make a fellow sweat the flesh off his bones when all the time there’s a fortune waiting for him. What have I got to work for, I’d like to know? I don’t just see the fun of it, and you wouldn’t neither, in my case. You’ve took jolly good care you don’t work yourself, trust you! I ain’t a-going to work no more, so there it is, plain and flat.’
Richard was not prepared for this; he could not hit at once on a new course of procedure, and probably it was the uncertainty revealed in his countenance that brought ‘Arry to a pitch of boldness not altogether premeditated. The lad came from the window, thrust his hands more firmly into his pockets and stood prepared to do battle for his freeman’s rights It is not every day that a youth of his stamp finds himself gloriously capable of renouncing work. There was something like a glow of conscious virtue on his face.
‘You’re not going to work any more, eh?’ said his brother, half to himself. ‘And who’s going to support you?’ he asked, with rather forced indignation.
‘There’s interest per cent. coming out of my money.’
‘Arry must not be credited with conscious accuracy in his use of terms; he merely jumbled together two words which had stuck in his memory.
‘Oh? And what are you going to do with your time?’
‘That’s my business. How do other men spend their time?’
The reply was obvious, but Richard felt the full seriousness of the situation and restrained his scornful impulses.
‘Sit down, will you?’ he said quietly, pointing to a chair.
His tone availed more than anger would have done.
‘You tell me I take good care not to do any work myself? There you’re wrong. I’m working hard every day.’
‘Oh, we know what kind of work that is!’
‘No, I don’t think you do. Perhaps it would be as well if you were to see. I think you’d better go to Wanley with me.’
‘What for?’
‘I dare say I can give you a job for awhile.’
‘I tell you I don’t want a job.’
Richard’s eye wandered rather vacantly. From the first it had been a question with him whether it would not be best to employ ‘Arry at Wanley, but on the whole the scheme adopted seemed more fruitful. Had the works been fully established it would have been a different thing. Even now he could keep the lad at work at Wanley, though not exactly in the way he desired. But if it came to a choice between a life of idleness in London and such employment as could be found for him at the works, ‘Arry must clearly leave town at once. In a few days the Manor would be furnished; in a few weeks Emma would be there to keep house.
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