The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 56: what you’re looking at

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CHAPTER IV THE SCHOOLMASTER CHRISTIAN proceeded straight to the lonely cottage where Mr. Redcliffe had taken up his temporary quarters, and where he found that gentleman awaiting his return. He communicated everything that had occurred at Oaklands, and Redcliffe listened with the deepest attention. ‘You have acted precisely in accordance with my in- structions,’ observed Redcliffe, when Christian had brought his narrative to a conclusion, *“‘ and your own conduct in the matter deserves the utmost praise. You have lost your situ- ation, and another must be procured for you. Cheerfully would I have you henceforth to live altogether with me, my young friend, but there are several reasons which compel. me to deny myself that pleasure, and in respect:to them will I deal frankly with you. In the first place, I could give you no employment, and idleness for a youth of your age, even with your excellent principles and with your naturally good disposition, would be very disadvantageous — I might almost say pernicious. Besides, you yourself, with such principles and with such a disposition, would, I am sure, infinitely prefer to eat the bread of your own honest industry than to subsist upon the resources of another. In the second place, I myself, Christian, am no companion for one of your age. I am a lonely and unhappy man, my habits are peculiar; there are times when I smart under the sense of such wrongs — But I will not inflict aught of all this upon you. Suffice it to say that I have certain aims to work out, which do not altogether leave me the master of my own time nor of my own actions. And then, too, solitude is the necessary por- tion of such a one as I am, and I dare not have it broken by the companionship of another. Therefore, my young friend, 39 COnNIECDOOKS (C(O)