Why should the
solid Samuel Wright and his foolish, obedient Eliza have brought into
the world a being of mist and fire? A beautiful youth, who laughed or
wept or sung aloud, indifferent to all about him! Sometimes Sam senior
used to look at his son and shake his head in bewildered astonishment;
but often he was angry, and oftener still--though this he never
admitted--hurt. The boy, always impersonally amiable, never thought it
worth while to explain himself; partly because he was not interested
in his father's opinion of his conduct, and partly because he knew he
could not make himself understood.
"But who, my dear Eliza," Samuel would say to his wife--"who could
understand such a boy? Look at this last performance of his!
Purchasing pictures of _actors_! Where does he get such low
tastes?--unless some of your family were interested in such things?"
"Oh no, Samuel; no, indeed," Mrs. Wright protested nervously.
"And to use money not his own! Do you know what that is called, my
dear Eliza? It is called--"
"Oh don't, Samuel." whimpered the poor mother.
"And to think how carefully I have trained him! And all I have done
for him. I let him buy that skiff he said he wanted. Absolute waste of
money! Our old rowboat is good enough for the girls, so why isn't it
good enough for him? And I never laid a hand on him in punishment
either; not many fathers can say that.
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