In the bosom of this family, unaccustomed to
the tropical nonsense of the West, it became plain the
SUNDAY HERALD and poor blethering Pinkerton had
been accepted for their face. It is not possible to
invent a circumstance that could have more depressed
me; and I am conscious that I behaved all through that
breakfast like a whipped schoolboy.
At length, the meal and family prayers being both
happily over, I requested the favour of an interview
with Uncle Adam on "the state of my affairs." At sound
of this ominous expression the good man's face
conspicuously lengthened; and when my grandfather,
having had the proposition repeated to him (for he was
hard of hearing), announced his intention of being
present at the interview, I could not but think that
Uncle Adam's sorrow kindled into momentary irritation.
Nothing, however, but the usual grim cordiality
appeared upon the surface; and we all three passed
ceremoniously to the adjoining library, a gloomy
theatre for a depressing piece of business. My
grandfather charged a clay pipe, and sat tremulously
smoking in a corner of the fireless chimney; behind
him, although the morning was both chill and dark, the
window was partly open and the blind partly down: I
cannot depict what an air he had of being out of place,
like a man shipwrecked there.
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