Читать книгу Cherry & Violet: A Tale of the Great Plague онлайн

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In Dress, his Taste was excessive neat, and yet gaudy; so that on Sundays, when he appeared in what he called his Marigold-and-Poppy, with his Hair, which Men then wore very long, combed down in large smooth Curls, his laced Collar nicely ironed, his Beaver well brushed, and his Shoes shining like Coals ... it would have been difficult to find a Grain of Fault with him, save that, as my Cousin Mark was wont to say, the Colours of his Suit did too much swear at one another. For my own Part, I always had an Impression that he was an excessive well-looking Man, not out of any Prejudice, but downright Prepossession; and yet my dear Mother, who I am sure loved him truly, always said to me when I alluded to the Subject, “My Dear, the Qualities of his Person were always far exceeded by those of his Mind.”

Of my Cousin Mark, who was my Father’s Apprentice, there could not be two Opinions. He was winsome, lightsome, debonair; of most comely Person and Aspect: we were all very proud of him, and he of himself. If he had a Fault, it was thinking too much of himself and too little of others; but this is so common that I do not know I am justified in particularizing it. Also he was somewhat of a Coward, not in respect of personal, animal Courage, of which I suppose he had as much as the aforesaid Trojan Horse, whatever that might be; but morally cowardly, as to what would be thought of him by others, and dreading the Evil of the present Moment, and so forth; which Men don’t think so bad a kind of Cowardice as the other, but I do.