Menie was one of those pure spirits, to whom a
state of unkindness, if the estranged person has
been a friend, is a state of pain, and the slightest
advance of her friend and protector was sufficient
to regain all her childish confidence and affection.
The father did not prove more inexorable than
Menie had done. Mr Gray, indeed, thought he
had good reason to look cold upon Richard at their
next meeting, being not a little hurt at the ungrateful
treatment which he had received on the
preceding evening. But Middlemas disarmed him
at once, by frankly pleading that he had suffered
his mind to be carried away by the supposed rank
and importance of his parents, into a idle conviction
that he was one day to share them. The
letter of his grandfather, which condemned him to
banishment and obscurity for life, was, he acknowledged,
a very severe blow; and it was with
deep sorrow that he reflected, that the irritation of
his disappointment had led him to express himself
in a manner far short of the respect and reverence
of one who owed Mr Gray the duty and affection
of a son, and ought to refer to his decision every
action of his life. Gideon, propitiated by an admission
so candid, and made with so much humility,
readily dismissed his resentment, and kindly enquired
of Richard, whether he had bestowed any
reflection upon the choice of profession which had
been subjected to him; offering, at the same time,
to allow him all reasonable time to make up his
mind.
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