You take my
advice, and put it all on a business-like footing. Let it be clear
from the first that you won't stand any nonsense. Ideas!" said Mr.
Redmayne in high disdain, "that's the curse of the country. Ideas
everywhere, about the empire, about civic rights and duties, about
religion, about art"--he made a long face as though he had
swallowed medicine. "Let us all keep our distance and do our work.
Let us have no nonsense about the brotherhood of man. I hope with
all my heart, Howard, that you won't permit anything of that kind.
I don't feel as sure of you as I should like; but this will be a
very good thing for you, if it shows you that all this stuff will
not do in practice. I'm an honest Whig. Let everyone have a vote,
and let them give their votes for the right people, and then we
shall get on very well."
XV
JACK'S ESCAPADE
The college slowly filled; the term began; Howard went back to his
work, and the perplexities of Windlow rather faded into the
background. He would behave very differently when he went there
next. It should all be cool, friendly, unemotional. But in spite of
everything, his aunt's words came sometimes into his mind,
troubling it with a sudden thrill. "Power, spirit, the development
of life,"--were these real things, had one somehow to put oneself
into touch with them? Was the life of serene and tranquil work but
marking time, wasting opportunity? Had one somehow to be stirred
into action and reality? Was there something in the background,
which did not insist or drive or interfere with one's inclinations,
because it knew that it would be obeyed and yielded to some time?
Was it just biding its time, waiting, impelling but not forcing one
to change? It gave him an impulse to look closer at his own views
and aims, to consider what his motives really were, how far he
could choose, how much he could prevail, to what extent he could
really do as he hoped and desired.
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