but--'

Young Frank's face grew dark now instead of red. When his cousin
submitted to him the necessity of having more than two horses for his
own use he could listen to him; but when the same monitor talked of the
chance of a father's death as a stroke of luck, Frank was too much
disgusted to be able pass it over with indifference. What! was he
thus to think of his father, whose face was always lighted up with
pleasure when his boy came near to him, and so rarely bright at any
other time? Frank had watched his father closely enough to be aware of
this; he knew how his father delighted in him; he had had cause to
guess that his father had many troubles, and that he strove hard to
banish the memory of them when his son was with him. He loved his
father truly, purely, and thoroughly, liked to be with him, and would
be proud to be his confidant. Could he listen quietly while his cousin
spoke of the chance of his father's death as a stroke of luck?

'I shouldn't think it a stroke of luck, John. I should think it the
greatest misfortune in the world.'

It is so difficult for a young man to enumerate sententiously a
principle of morality, or even an expression of ordinary good feeling,
without giving himself something of a ridiculous air, without assuming
something of a mock grandeur!

'Oh, of course, my dear fellow,' said the Honourable John, laughing;
'that's a matter of course. We all understand that without saying it.
Porlock, of course, would feel exactly the same about the governor; but
if the governor were to walk, I think Porlock would console himself
with the thirty thousand a year.'