profited very little by his lessons in politeness.

When the time arrived for him to finish his studies, by going to college
and travelling abroad, the young heir of the Hurdlestones obstinately
refused to avail himself of these advantages. He declared that the
money, so uselessly bestowed, would add nothing to his present stock of
knowledge, but only serve to decrease his patrimony; that all the
learning that books could convey, could be better acquired in the quiet
and solitude of home; that he knew already as much of the dead
languages as he ever would have occasion for, as he did not mean to
enter the church or to plead at the bar; and there was no character he
held in greater abhorrence than a fashionable beau or a learned pedant.
His uncle had earned a right to both these characters; and, though a
clever man, he was dependent in his old age on the charity of his rich
relations. For his part, he was contented with his country and his home,
and had already seen as much of the world as he wished to see, without
travelling beyond the precincts of his native village.

Mr. Hurdlestone greatly applauded his son's resolution, which, he
declared, displayed a degree of prudence and sagacity remarkable at his
age. But his mother, who still retained a vivid recollection of the
pleasures and gaiety of a town life, from which she had long been
banished by her avaricious lord, listened to the sordid sentiments
expressed by her first-born with contempt, and transferred all her
maternal regard to his brother, whom she secretly determined should be
the gentleman of the family.

In her schemes for the aggrandizement of Algernon, she was greatly
assisted by Uncle Alfred, who loved the handsome, free-spirited boy for
his own sake, as well as for a certain degree of resemblance, which he