Page:Eliot - Adam Bede, vol. III, 1859.djvu/236

226 "Have you heard any news from that poor young man since we last spoke of him?"

Dinah always called Arthur so; she had never lost the image of him as she had seen him in the prison.

"Yes," said Adam. "Mr Irwine read me part of a letter from him yesterday. It's pretty certain, they say, that there'll be a peace soon, though nobody believes it'll last long; but he says he doesn't mean to come home. He's no heart for it yet; and it's better for others that he should keep away. Mr Irwine thinks he's in the right not to come:—it's a sorrowful letter. He asks about you and the Poysers, as he always does. There's one thing in the letter cut me a good deal:—'You can't think what an old fellow I feel,' he says; 'I make no schemes now. I'm the best when I've a good day's march or fighting before me.

"He's of a rash, warm-hearted nature, like Esau, for whom I have always felt great pity," said Dinah.

"That meeting between the brothers, where Esau is so loving and generous, and Jacob so timid and distrustful, notwithstanding his sense of the Divine favour, has always touched me greatly. Truly, I