Personally, Gibbs had no illusions about industry, he considered it a fine thing, so long as it paid.
“The Bensons have always worked hard enough,” said the lawyer.
“That's not so true of the Landrays, he favours the Landrays,” and Gibbs chuckled.
“He is half Benson. Why shouldn't we enjoy now? I am glad enough to see some one who is gracefully idle; who seems to be able to do nothing without getting into mischief and making a mess of it.
“Well, he seems to have an infinite capacity in that direction. I've never heard him complain of not having an occupation. It ain't a thing he misses much, I should say,” said Gibbs.
If Gibbs could not rid himself of the conviction that Stephen should be thinking of his future, Virginia was very strongly of this same opinion, too. She had no faith in Benson, and his indifference in the case of Stephen she felt was fraught with disastrous possibilities for the latter. His strength and vigour, his very manhood would be sapped by his condition of dependence. From her, this feeling spread to Mrs. Walsh, and Harriett, and Elinor, and even to Mark Norton, who partook in some measure of all their prejudices, for he found that incessant reiteration sooner or later fastened them upon him.
Stephen's lack of all ambition was a blow to Elinor. She had more than liked him from the first, but Ben Wade had always been held up to her by Clara, as a shining example of what a young man should be; and Clara's convictions, which were always advanced with singular steadiness, never failed to impress her. If Wade was all Clara said, and she hoped Clara was not mistaken, surely Stephen's lack of all apparent ambition was anything but praiseworthy. She would have liked to rouse him, to have pointed out to him, that a young man who had leisure for afternoon calls, was in the nature of an innovation in Benson. She did not doubt that when she returned home this was one of the first things Clara would do, for Clara was the soul of uncompromising candour.
Of Ben Wade Stephen saw much. Wade's attitude was that of a lifelong friend who was resuming a merely interrupted intimacy, and in this light Stephen came to look upon him and to accept him. Wade possessed a wide popularity, but the liking in which he was held extended to no other member of his family. Wade himself did not appear to notice this, certainly he did not resent it. This struck Stephen as odd, and it was one of the things he admired his friend the less for. Another thing he was not slow to observe, was that he was very welcome at the Norton's; but he admitted that Ben could hardly be blamed for having made the most of his opportunities, whether professional or social.
Ben was also his aunt's lawyer, and it was from him that he came to know something of his aunt's affairs; that the sale of what had once been farm-land about the cottage, was her only source of revenue.
“She'll be in a bad way when she gets to the end of that,” said Wade rather indifferently.