However, he had not failed
in the duty, and Julian (his name had been Englished) was still
going to school at his uncle's expense. It was by this time
understood that, on leaving school, he should come into the shop,
and there qualify himself for the business of a chemist.
Had it not been for Julian, the back parlour would have seen but
little cheerfulness to-night. Mr. Smales himself was always
depressed in mind and ailing in body. Life had proved too much for
him; the burden of the recurring daylight was beyond his strength.
There was plainly no lack of kindliness in his disposition, and this
never failed to come strongly into his countenance as often as he
looked at Harriet. She was his only child. Her mother had died of
consumption early in their married life, and it was his perpetual
dread lest he should discover in Harriet a disposition to the same
malady.
His fears had but too much stimulus to keep them alive. Harriet had
passed through a sickly childhood, and was growing up with a feeble
constitution. Body and mind were alike unhealthy. Of all the people
who came in contact with her, her father alone was blind to her
distorted sense of right, her baseless resentments, her malicious
pleasures, her depraved intellect.
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