He almost
sickened of politics when he thought of his domestic bereavement
and his domestic misfortunes. How completely had he failed to
indoctrinate his children with the ideas by which his own mind was
fortified and controlled! Nothing was so base to him as a
gambler, and they had both commenced their career by gambling.
From their young boyhood nothing had seemed so desirable to him as
that they should be accustomed by early training to devote
themselves to the service of their country. He saw other young
noblemen around him who at eighteen were known as debaters at
their colleges, or at twenty-five were already deep in politics,
social science, and educational projects. What good would all his
wealth or all his position do for his children if their minds
could rise to nothing beyond the shooting of deer and the hunting
of foxes? There was young Lord Buttercup, the son of the Earl of
Woolantallow, only a few months older than Silverbridge,--who was
already a junior lord, and as constant at his office, or during
the Session on the Treasury Bench, as though there were not a pack
of hounds or a card-table in Great Britain! Lord Buttercup, too,
had already written an article in 'The Fortnightly' on the subject
of Turkish finance.
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