One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
under the irony of circumstances the Tory of Commerce,
had trotted and gallopped whither driven, racing like mad
against his will and the rival nations now in the field to force
the pace; a name for enterprise; the close commercial connection
of a man who speculated—who, to put it plainly,
lived on his wits; hurried onward and onward; always doubting,
munching, grumbling at satisfaction, in perplexity of
the gratitude which is apprehensive of black Nemesis at a
turn of the road,—to confound so wild a whip as Victor
Radnor. He had never forgiven the youth’s venture in India
of an enormous purchase of Cotton many years back, and
which he had repudiated, though not his share of the hundreds
of thousands realized before the refusal to ratify the
bargain had come to Victor. Mr. Inchling dated his first indigestion
from that disquieting period. He assented to the
praise of Victor’s genius, admitting benefits; his heart refused
to pardon, and consequently his head wholly to trust, the
man who robbed him of his quondam comfortable feeling
of security. And if you will imagine the sprite of the aggregate
English Taxpayer personifying Steam as the malignant
who has despoiled him of the blessed Safety-Assurance he
once had from his God Neptune against invaders, you will
comprehend the state of Mr. Inchling’s mind in regard to his
terrific and bountiful, but very disturbing partner.
He thanked heaven to his wife often, that he had nothing
to do with North American or South American mines and
pastures or with South Africa and, gold and diamonds: and
a wife must sometimes listen, mastering her inward comparisons.
Dr. Schlesien had met and meditated on this example
of the island energy. Mr. Inchling was not permitted
by his wife to be much the guest of the Radnor household,
because of the frequent meeting there with Colney Durance;
Colney’s humour for satire being instantly in bristle at sight
of his representative of English City merchants: ‘over whom,’
as he wrote of the venerable body, ‘the disciplined and instructed
Germans not deviously march; whom acute and adventurous
Americans, with half a cock of the eye in passing,
compassionately outstrip.’ He and Dr. Schlesien agreed upon
Mr. Inchling. Meantime the latter gentleman did his part at
the tables of the wealthier City Companies, and retained his
appearance of health; he was beginning to think, upon a
calculation of the increased treasures of those Companies
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