Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/65

Rh "Losing a few guineas!" said Lucy, interrupting him.

"Worse than that—his practice and his name!"

"Better those than health, and peace of mind."

"Out on you—No!" said Brandon, quickly, and almost fiercely;—"We waste all the greenness and pith of our life in striving to gain a distinguished slavery; and when it is gained, we must not think that a humble independence would have been better! If we ever admit that thought, what fools—what lavish fools we have been!—No!" continued Brandon, after a momentary pause, and in a tone milder and gayer, though not less characteristic of the man's stubbornness of will—"After losing all youth's enjoyments and manhood's leisure, in order that in age, the mind—the all-conquering mind, should break its way at last into the applauding opinions of men, I should be an effeminate idler, indeed, did I suffer,—so long as its jarring parts hold together, or so long as I have the power to command its members,—this weak body to frustrate the labour of its better and nobler portion, and command that which it is ordained to serve."