He knew that the parson was living in straitened
circumstances, with two daughters to provide for, and he knew also
that his mother's fortune should in equity have been divided among the
family; but, as he pointed out to his dear old governor, a Carteret
mustn't be allowed to starve; so the parson, who loved the handsome
lad, put down his hack and sent the prodigal a remittance. He had
better have sent him a hempen rope, for necessity might have made a
man out of Master Dick; the remittance turned him into a moral idiot.
A Carteret, as you know, cannot do himself justice upon five pounds a
month, so Dick was constrained to play the part of Mentor to sundry
youthful compatriots, teaching them a short cut to ruin, and sharing
the while their purses and affections. But, very unhappily for Dick,
the supply of fools suddenly failed, and, lo! Dick's occupation was
gone. Finally, in despair, he allied himself to another remittance
man, an ex-deacon of the Church of England, and the two drifted slowly
out of decent society upon a full tide of Bourbon whisky.
Tidings must have come to the parson of his son's unhappy condition,
or possibly he decided that the Misses Carteret were entitled to the
remittance.
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