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we passed many cases and at last came to one in which there were several clocks and two or three old watches |
the design was different but the thing was clearly the same |
this had some effect in calming him |
he began presently to relent and spoke to me in a kinder manner |
if the reader will excuse me i will say nothing of my antecedents nor of the circumstances which led me to leave my native country the narrative would be tedious to him and painful to myself |
it will be seen that i did not succeed in my design and that however much i may have met with that was new and strange i have been unable to reap any pecuniary advantage |
no one who is himself honest will doubt my being so |
i reached my destination in one of the last months of eighteen sixty eight but i dare not mention the season lest the reader should gather in which hemisphere i was |
sheep and cattle were introduced and bred with extreme rapidity men took up their fifty thousand or one hundred thousand acres of country going inland one behind the other till in a few years there was not an acre between the sea and the front ranges which was not taken up and stations either for sheep or cattle were s... |
i was delighted with the country and the manner of life |
i was to see the sheep not necessarily close at hand nor to get them in a single mob but to see enough of them here and there to feel easy that nothing had gone wrong this was no difficult matter for there were not above eight hundred of them and being all breeding ewes they were pretty quiet |
there were a good many sheep which i knew as two or three black ewes and a black lamb or two and several others which had some distinguishing mark whereby i could tell them |
it is surprising how soon the eye becomes accustomed to missing twenty sheep out of two or three hundred |
it was a monotonous life but it was very healthy and one does not much mind anything when one is well |
the country was the grandest that can be imagined |
so lonely and so solemn with the sad grey clouds above and no sound save a lost lamb bleating upon the mountain side as though its little heart were breaking |
each must cry louder and wander farther yet may luck be with them both that they may find their own at nightfall |
i had no money but if i could only find workable country i might stock it with borrowed capital and consider myself a made man |
there was no one in the whole world who had the smallest idea save those who were themselves on the other side of it if indeed there was any one at all could i hope to cross it |
i would try the nearer range and see how far i could go |
preface to second edition |
this is a mistake though a perfectly natural one |
on my return i purposely avoided looking into it until i had sent back my last revises to the printer |
then i had much pleasure in reading it but was indeed surprised at the many little points of similarity between the two books in spite of their entire independence to one another |
i regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the chapters on machines as an attempt to reduce mister darwin's theory to an absurdity |
i am surprised however that the book at which such an example of the specious misuse of analogy would seem most naturally levelled should have occurred to no reviewer neither shall i mention the name of the book here though i should fancy that the hint given will suffice |
but this had an effect of which i have little reason to complain for i was allowed almost to call them life long self deceivers to their faces and they said it was quite true but that it did not matter |
i must not conclude without expressing my most sincere thanks to my critics and to the public for the leniency and consideration with which they have treated my adventures |
it was written in the upper rangitata district of the canterbury province as it then was of new zealand and appeared at christchurch in the press newspaper june thirteenth eighteen sixty three |
i also wrote about this time the substance of what ultimately became the musical banks and the trial of a man for being in a consumption |
i see from my second preface that i took the book to messrs chapman and hall may first eighteen seventy one and on their rejection of it under the advice of one who has attained the highest rank among living writers i let it sleep till i took it to mister trubner early in eighteen seventy two |
i attribute its unlooked for success mainly to two early favourable reviews the first in the pall mall gazette of april twelfth and the second in the spectator of april twentieth |
there was also another cause |
the first edition of erewhon sold in about three weeks i had not taken moulds and as the demand was strong it was set up again immediately |
i made a few further very trifling alterations before moulds were taken but since the summer of eighteen seventy two as new editions were from time to time wanted they have been printed from stereos then made |
i am still fairly well satisfied with those parts of erewhon that were repeatedly rewritten but from those that had only a single writing i would gladly cut out some forty or fifty pages if i could |
this however may not be for the copyright will probably expire in a little over twelve years |
in the last communication which he had received from lady milborough she had scolded him in terms that were for her severe because he had not returned to his wife and taken her off with him to naples |
and now it had come to pass that his sole remaining ally mister samuel bozzle the ex policeman was becoming weary of his service |
at last he sent word to say that he himself would be in england before the end of march and would see that the majesty of the law should be vindicated in his favour |
in making this he had expected no success though from the energetic nature of his disposition he had made the attempt with some zeal |
missus bozzle was disposed to think that ladies of quality among whom madame t was entitled in her estimation to take rank were seldom better than they ought to be and she was quite willing that her husband should earn his bread by watching the lady or the lady's lover |
and had the case been brought before the judge ordinary by means of her husband's exertions she would have taken pleasure in reading every word of the evidence even though her husband should have been ever so roughly handled by the lawyers |
a distinct promise of a hundred pounds was made to him if he would have the child ready to hand over to trevelyan on trevelyan's arrival in england |
of course it ain't said missus bozzle |
the paternal parent has a right to his infants no doubt that was bozzle's law |
he can't suckle em can he |
when a married woman has followers and the husband don't go the wrong side of the post too or it ain't proved again him that he do they'll never let her have nothing to do with the children |
i'll tell you what it is b exclaimed missus bozzle it's my belief as he ain't quite right up here and missus bozzle touched her forehead |
drat em all what is it they wants they don't know what they wants |
it's that as makes em i won't say what |
but as for this here child b |
trevelyan had followed his letter quicker than he had intended when it was written and was now with his prime minister before his prime minister had been able to take any action on the last instruction received |
does one mister samuel bozzle live here asked trevelyan |
then bozzle came forward and introduced his wife |
but trevelyan was of a different opinion and he was disgusted and revolted most unreasonably by the appearance of his minister's domestic arrangements |
bozzle had always waited upon him with a decent coat and a well brushed hat and clean shoes |
it is very much easier for such men as mister bozzle to carry decency of appearance about with them than to keep it at home |
perhaps you could put on your coat and walk out with me for a few minutes said trevelyan |
missus bozzle who well understood that business was business and that wives were not business felt no anger at this and handed her husband his best coat |
bozzle away from his own home out on business with his coat buttoned over his breast and his best hat in his hand was aware that he commanded respect and he could carry himself accordingly |
i do not suppose that anybody will question my right to have the care of my own child said trevelyan |
if you would have gone to mister skint sir suggested bozzle |
as he went about his eyes were ever cast downwards and he walked with a quick shuffling gait and he suspected others feeling that he himself was suspected |
and all work had ceased with him |
he's up in town sir a minding of his parliamentary duties |
i've watched as sharp as watching can go pretty near |
but if you ask me my opinion why in course they've been together somewhere |
and bozzle as he said this smiled almost aloud |
and he did go away leaving bozzle standing in the middle of stony walk |
sir edward not wholly discouraged by the denial with which dorriforth had with delicacy acquainted him still hoped for a kind reception and was so often at the house of missus horton that lord frederick's jealousy was excited and the tortures he suffered in consequence convinced him beyond a doubt of the sincerity of h... |
every time he beheld the object of his passion for he still continued his visits though not so frequently as heretofore he pleaded his cause with such ardour that miss woodley who was sometimes present and ever compassionate could not resist wishing him success |
yet did the watchful miss woodley oftentimes hear a sigh escape from her unknown to herself till she was reminded of it and then a sudden blush would instantly overspread her face |
night after night his sleep had been disturbed by fears for her when abroad morning after morning it had been broken by the clamour of her return |
i hope miss milner you pass this evening at home |
i thought miss milner you gave me your word that you would pass this evening at home |
yes indeed and i believe it is right that i should keep my first promise is it not |
missus horton rose from her seat moved the decanters and fruit round the table stirred the fire and came back to her seat again before another word was uttered |
nor had this good woman's officious labours taken the least from the awkwardness of the silence which as soon as the bustle she had made was over returned in its full force |
miss milner you shall not leave the house this evening sir |
and he walked immediately out of the apartment by another door |
her hand fell motionless from that which she held she appeared motionless herself till missus horton beseeching her not to be uneasy at the treatment she had received made her tears flow as if her heart was breaking |
it was not from any real cause of grief that she wept but there was a magnetic quality in tears which always attracted her's |
do you think i would go answered miss milner with an eagerness that for a time suppressed her tears in contradiction to his will |
if you think so madam i see nothing that should prevent me now |
niece i command you not to stir out of this room this evening |
miss woodley obediently sat down and though her thoughts and heart were in the chamber of her friend she never marked by one impertinent word or by one line of her face the restraint she suffered |
at the usual hour mister dorriforth and his ward were summoned to tea he entered with a countenance which evinced the remains of anger his eye gave testimony of his absent thoughts and though he took up a pamphlet affecting to read it was plain to discern that he scarcely knew he held it in his hand |
miss woodley thought it her duty to be mute and now the gingle of a tea spoon was like a deep toned bell all was so quiet |
missus horton too in the self approving reflection that she was not in a quarrel or altercation of any kind felt herself at this moment remarkably peaceful and charitable |
miss woodley did not recollect herself so but was so in reality in her peace and charity were instinctive virtues accident could not increase them |
he coughed drank his tea endeavoured to talk but found it difficult sometimes read and in this manner near two hours were passed away when miss milner came into the room not dressed for a ball but as she had risen from dinner |
dorriforth read on and seemed afraid of looking up lest he should see what he could not have pardoned |
after a few minutes pause and some little embarrassment on the part of missus horton at the disappointment she had to encounter from this unexpected dutiful conduct she asked miss milner if she would now have any tea |
dorriforth then laid the book out of his hand and by the time the servant had left the room thus began |
it is often the ungrateful task of a friend to be troublesome sometimes unmannerly |
forgive the duties of my office and believe that no one is half so much concerned if it robs you of any degree of happiness as i myself am |
what he said he looked with so much sincerity that had she been burning with rage at his late behaviour she must have forgiven him for the regret which he so forcibly exprest |
she was going to reply but found she could not without accompanying her words with tears therefore after the first attempt she desisted |
on this he rose from his chair and going to her said once more shew your submission by obeying me a second time to day |
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