Manchurian Books

They represented
the Gentry, the Quality, by and through and for whom the rest of the
world, the farming folk and the labouring folk, the trades-people
of Ashborough, and the upper servants and the lower servants and the
servants of the estate, breathed and lived and were permitted. And the
Quality did it so quietly and thoroughly, the great house mingled so
solidly and effectually earth and sky, the contrast of its spacious
hall and saloon and galleries, its airy housekeeper's room and warren
of offices with the meagre dignities of the vicar, and the pinched and
stuffy rooms of even the post-office people and the grocer, so enforced
these suggestions, that it was only when I was a boy of thirteen or
fourteen and some queer inherited strain of scepticism had set me
doubting whether Mr. Bartlett, the vicar, did really know with certainty
all about God, that as a further and deeper step in doubting I began to
question the final rightness of the gentlefolks, their primary necessity
in the scheme of things. But once that scepticism had awakened it took
me fast and far.


Pages:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25