Complete Poetical Works of Charlotte Smith by Charlotte Smith

Author:Charlotte Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Poetry
Publisher: Delphi Classics
Published: 2018-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER IX

MR SOMERIVE threw himself into a chair, and, clasping his hands eagerly together, exclaimed, ‘Good God! what is to be done now?’

‘Nothing, my dear Sir,’ replied Orlando, ‘can or ought to be done, but for me to obey the orders I have received; and, I beseech you, do not suffer a matter so much in course, or which might have been so easily forseen, to make you unhappy!’

‘What will become of me,’ cried Somerville wildly, ‘when you, Orlando, are gone? – And your brother, your unhappy brother! is a misery rather than a protection to your sisters, to your mother . . . !’

‘They will want no protector, Sir,’ said Orlando, much affected by his father’s distress, ‘while you live – and . . . !’

‘That will be but a very little while, my son! the cruelty of your brother has broken my heart! While you were all that could make me amends, the wound, however incurable, was not immediately mortal; but now – !’

He put his hands on his heart, as if he really felt there the incurable wound he described bleed afresh. Orlando, concealing his own concern as well as he could, endeavoured to sooth his father, by representing to him that this was always likely to happen, and that probably a few months would restore him to his family. – Somerive listened to nothing but his own overwhelming apprehensions, and cast his thoughts around to every remedy that might be applied to so great an evil. The assurance General Tracy had given him that there was no likelihood Orlando should be sent abroad, now appeared a cruel deception, which had betrayed him into such folly and rashness as sending into the army that son on whom rested all the dependence of his family. – Bitterly repenting what he could not now recall, he caught at the hope that Mrs Rayland might interpose to prevent her favourite’s being exposed to the dangers of an American campaign –

‘You cannot go,’ cried Somerive, after a moment’s pause; ‘Mrs Rayland will never suffer it – it will be renouncing all the advantages she offers you.’

‘I must then renounce them, Sir,’ said Orlando; ‘because I must otherwise renounce my honour. – What figure, I beseech you, would a man make, who having in December accepted a commission, should resign it in May because he is ordered abroad? My dear Sir, could you wish such an instance should happen in the person of your Orlando?’

The unhappy father could not but acknowledge the truth of what Orlando said; but his heart, still unable to resist the pain inflicted by the idea of losing him, clung involuntarily to the hope that the attachment of Mrs Rayland might furnish him with an excuse for withdrawing from the army, and the greatness of the object for which he staid justify his doing so to the world. – Orlando in vain contended that this could not be, and besought his father not to give to his mother

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