Wilkins's life.
Mr. Ness had an occasional pupil; that is to say, he never put himself
out of the way to obtain pupils, but did not refuse the entreaties
sometimes made to him that he would prepare a young man for college, by
allowing the said young man to reside and read with him. "Ness's men"
took rather high honours, for the tutor, too indolent to find out work
for himself, had a certain pride in doing well the work that was found
for him.
When Ellinor was somewhere about fourteen, a young Mr. Corbet came to be
pupil to Mr. Ness. Her father always called on the young men reading
with the clergyman, and asked them to his house. His hospitality had in
course of time lost its _recherche_ and elegant character, but was always
generous, and often profuse. Besides, it was in his character to like
the joyous, thoughtless company of the young better than that of the
old--given the same amount of refinement and education in both.
Mr. Corbet was a young man of very good family, from a distant county. If
his character had not been so grave and deliberate, his years would only
have entitled him to be called a boy, for he was but eighteen at the time
when he came to read with Mr. Ness. But many men of five-and-twenty have
not reflected so deeply as this young Mr. Corbet already had. He had
considered and almost matured his plan for life; had ascertained what
objects he desired most to accomplish in the dim future, which is to many
at his age only a shapeless mist; and had resolved on certain steady
courses of action by which such objects were most likely to be secured.
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