Access Online - The European Library

102 BLACK SHEEP.mother yvas the only woman he had ever caredffor, and that he had only of late achieved thcloftier ideals of love. It yvas of recent date thathe learned to hold his wife more clear and preciousthanMr. Carruthers of Poynings.He was not in the least jealous of George.He liked him. He yvas clever,Mr. Carruthersknew; ancl he rather disapproved of clever peoplein the abstract.He had heard, and had noreason to doubt — certainly none afforded by hisstep-son's previous career — that literary peopleyvere abad lot. He supposed, innocent Mr. Carruthers,that, to be literary, people must be clever.The inference yvas indisputable. But George didnot bore him with his cleverness. He nevertalked about the Piccadilly or the Mercury,reserving his confidences on these points for lusmother and his uncle. The family party pairedoff a good deal. Mr. Carruthers and his wife,Mark Felton and his nephew. And then Mr.Carruthers had an opportunity of becoming convincedthat the doubts he had allowed to troublehim had all been groundless, and to learn byexperience that, happy in her son's society, truly