Mother and Son Read Free

answer.”
    â€œI will give it to you,” said his father. “It is because it is seen as requiring a lower intelligence, and because it does require it. And because it is dull and unrewarding in itself.”
    â€œI would do anything rather than adapt myself to a single human being,” said Francis.
    â€œAdapting oneself to human beings is the essence of usefulness,” said his aunt. “And you will have to be useful to earn your bread. There will be no money apart from a little for your sister. We have nothing except what comes from the place, and goes back into it.”
    â€œThat may not put it so far from Francis,” said Julius. “He comes into things after Rosebery.”
    â€œAnd I am so likely to be a bachelor, Father, indeed am so far established in that character, that it is natural to nominate my successor. And I welcome my cousin as heir presumptive, and after him his brother. And I think we may say that our line is secure.”
    â€œYou may marry at any time and have a son,” said Francis. “You are not the type of man that is indifferent to women.”
    â€œRather would I say, Francis, that I am too little indifferent to them,” said Rosebery, smiling and then altering his tone. “I think almost any woman could find her way to my heart, indeed would find it open to her; and that might not be the safest road towards matrimony. And talking about my type, I belong to the one that is faithful to the one woman, and that the one who fills the earliest memories.” He smiled at his mother.
    â€œSo it is Adrian who will face the stress of things,” said Alice. “And he is not the most fitted for it.”
    â€œI suggest that he should prepare himself for the secondary duties, that I now discharge for my father;and that he should moreover perform them with more success than his cousin.”
    â€œHe might do something less suitable,” said Julius.
    â€œWe cannot plan our lives on the basis of Rosebery’s remaining a bachelor,” said Francis. “He might marry after Aunt Miranda’s death. He would find his life lonely without her.”
    â€œYou need not concern yourself with his future,” said Miranda, her tone perhaps sharper for the allusion to her own.
    â€œFrancis, I must deprecate the voicing of that thought,” said Rosebery, in troubled remonstrance. “It is enough that I carry it with me. I should undoubtedly—perhaps I should say ‘shall’—find my life lonely without her; but it would not in my case constitute a reason for marrying. Rather should I walk with my loneliness as a companion.”
    â€œI would rather have ordinary work,” said Adrian. “I could not be assistant to Francis. I should always know he was my brother.”
    â€œI should feel the same about a cousin,” said Francis. “We should be too much on a level.”
    â€œYour cousin is not on your level,” said Miranda. “He is thirty years older than you, and a weightier personality.”
    â€œA weightier person perhaps we should say, Mother,” said Rosebery, with his slow laugh. “That will not be disputed.”
    â€œThe boys can do boys’ work for the present,” said Julius. “And it is not the easiest kind.”
    â€œAnd work of any kind is a privilege,” saidRosebery. “I often regret that I am in a measure denied it.”
    â€œYou could do more, if you would,” said his father. “I thought it was your object to escape it.”
    â€œI need his companionship until my own companion comes,” said Miranda. “I am doing my best to get her. I cannot help the low quality of people. They seem to be of a different order from myself.”
    â€œShe does not want one of the same order,” said Alice, aside. “She was explaining it to Miss Burke.”
    â€œIt grieves me, Mother,” said Rosebery, “that you should want a