You speak of its being time to cease roving, of settling
yourself at last, of never parting, and, prodigal as you are, of making
Eve the future mistress of your fortune. Now to all this, recreant,
confess, or I shall never again put faith in man."
John Effingham made no answer, but the father warmly expressed his
indignation, that any man of the smallest pretensions to be admitted among
gentlemen, should be guilty of an act so base.
"We can hardly tolerate his presence. John, and it is almost a matter of
conscience to send him to Coventry."
"If you entertain such notions of decorum, your wisest way, Edward, will
be to return to the place whence you have come; for, trust me, you will
find scores of such gentlemen where you are going!"
"I shall not allow you to persuade me I know my own country so little.
Conduct like this will stamp a man with disgrace in America as well as
elsewhere."
"Conduct like this would, but it will no longer. The pell-mell that rages
has brought honourable men into a sad minority, and even Mr. Dodge will
tell you the majority must rule. Were he to publish my letter, a large
portion of his readers would fancy he was merely asserting the liberty of
the press. Heavens save us! You have been dreaming abroad, Ned Effingham,
while your country has retrograded, in all that is respectable and good, a
century in a dozen years!"
As this was the usual language of John Effingham, neither of his listeners
thought much of it, though Mr.
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