[CHAPTER XII.]
THE WIGGINSES AND MAIDENHAIR.
"The happy find
Equality of beauty everywhere
To feed on."
JEAN INGELOW.
MRS. TREVELYAN carried out her intention, and made abundant use of Giles Cuthbert for the amusing of Jean. Usually he was not amenable to such efforts, having a great objection to needless trouble, but for once, he offered no objection. If he had taken a fancy to the girl, that made all the difference. The laziest people living will take trouble to please themselves.
Giles liked ease; and his life had been such as to foster this inclination. He had been born, not to wealth, but to sufficient means; and he had been brought up from childhood with the notion, that while it was correct and gentlemanly to have some stated occupation, there was no necessity for him to work hard. So he never had worked hard. He had passed schooldays with tolerable credit; he had gone through college with no particular reproach; and he had consented to the law as a profession. There advance was stayed. Some amount of preparatory reading was accomplished; and Giles, finding law by no means to his taste, threw it up. Months of dallying followed, and he began to talk of a career in politics; but an opening had to be waited for, and somebody suggested a lengthy tour on the Continent, by way of preparation. Giles seized on this notion, his indulgent father always consenting; and the tour proved to be a very lengthy one indeed.
At twenty-five, his future mode of life was still uncertain, when the sudden death of that father left him in easy circumstances, unfettered, depending on nobody, while nobody depended on him.
Thenceforward, he drifted away from any definite line of life, simply pleasing his own fancies. He had no lands or tenants to occupy him; nothing beyond a clear fifteen hundred a year, to spend as he would. Since Giles had expensive tastes, he found no difficulty in getting rid of that amount yearly; indeed, at times, he outran it, though not seriously, for debt was a matter which disturbed his peace of mind, and Giles preferred to be comfortable, mentally as well as bodily.
He lived a good deal in Town, travelled a good deal on the Continent, saw a good deal of society, skimmed a good deal of literature, and in a lazy fashion, found a good deal to do. When money ran short, he would betake himself to Mrs. Trevelyan's Cottage for a few weeks, and would "vegetate" there in contented idleness. Mrs. Trevelyan had always been his favourite aunt, and her home was always open to him.
There were capabilities in Giles, which, rightly trained and used, might have resulted in a fine character; but it is through resistance, not compliance, through hardship, not ease, that harmony and beauty of character are evolved. For the bare idea of grandeur, opposition overcome is a necessity.
A boat swept downward by the current may be pretty: but there is nothing "fine" about it. Our higher admiration is reserved for the same boat manfully fighting its way up-stream, overcoming difficulty inch by inch through resolute effort. A tree, reared in a hothouse, with soil, warmth, food, amply provided, may be a most successful specimen of its kind; but it suggests no thought of victory; it is only the pampered darling of scientific care. ᴵ The gnarled and twisted oak, which has fought its way through countless storms, has mastered unnumbered hardships, stands out as a type of the truly great, of the morally grand.