Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Archibald Malmaison by Julian Hawthorne
page 46 of 116 (39%)
fitted to discharge efficiently, and conscientiously, an English
gentleman's duties, whether it were to manage an estate, or--or in fact
whatever it might be. And then came the little story about the mysterious
apparition of Archie out of vacancy, which Lady Malmaison treated
humorously; though in her own heart she was very much scared at it, and
was moreover privately convinced that Archie was, and would remain, very
little better than an idiot all his life long. Now, it is well known that
English country gentlemen are never idiotic.

What was the elder Dr. Rollinson's real opinion about Archie's relapse? The
only direct evidence worth having on this point--his own--is unfortunately
not forthcoming, and we are obliged to depend on such inaccurate or
interested hearsay as has just been quoted above. It seems likely that he
came to the conclusion that stupidity was the boy's normal condition and
that his seven years of brilliance had been something essentially abnormal
and temporary, and important only from a pathological point of view.
Indeed, there was nothing in the transmuted Archibald's condition that was
susceptible of being treated as a disease. He was as healthy as the
average of boys of fourteen (if he were a boy of fourteen, and not a child
of seven). He knew nothing, and had retained nothing, of his other life;
he had to be taught his letters--and a terrible job that was, by all
accounts; he occasionally expressed a desire to see his nurse Maggie--who,
the charitable reader will rejoice to hear, had been honestly married
since we last heard of her. He was greatly puzzled to find himself so much
taller than when he last knew himself; and it was a long time before he
could be induced to recognize his own reflection in the looking-glass.
Needless to say that everything connected with the secret chamber and the
silver rod was completely erased from his mind; and though he had been
found with the rod in his hand, he could not tell what it was or where he
got it.
DigitalOcean Referral Badge