Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham

them sharply, back. When he turned he saw that Elizabeth had flushed; at
.his last remark as if it were her responsibility.
    "We ordinary people," George said,
"are affected by the vagaries of fortune. Our faces, our figures are
marked and warped by all the storms that blow. But your wife, my dear Francis,
has a beauty which is untouched by ill luck or indifferent health and only
grows more radiant when the tide turns."
    Francis threw off his coat. "I think we all
need a drink. We can still afford drink, George. Some of the old instincts
remain."
    "I have been pressing him to sup with
us," Elizabeth said. "But he will not.”
    "Cannot," said George. "I must be
back at Cardew before dark. I had been as far as St. Ann's this afternoon on
mining business and could not resist calling on you when so near. You come so
little to town these days."
    George was right, Francis thought cynically as
his wife took a wineglass from him, Elizabeth's beauty was too pure to be
affected by everyday circumstance. George still envied him one thing.
    " And how's mining?" he asked. One
advantage of being out of it is that one can take a purely academic interest in
its vagaries. Are you thinking of closing Wheal Plenty?"
    "Far from it." George poked the carpet
with his long malacca stick and then stopped because just there the pattern of
the carpet was wearing thin. "Tin and copper are both rising. If it goes
on we may be able to restart Grambler one day.
    "If that was possible!" said
Elizabeth.
    "Which it is not." Francis drained'
his glass at a draught. "George is romancing for your benefit. Copper
would have to double its price to justify a new outlay on Grambler now it is
closed and derelict. Had it been saved from closing there might have been
another story. It will not reopen in our lifetime. 'I am fully resigned to
spending the rest of my days as an impoverished farmer."
    George humped his shoulders. "I'm sure you
are making a mistake. You're both making a mistake of remaining shut up here.
There is plenty to be had of life even in these depressed days. Poldark is
still a good name, Francis, and if you moved in society more opportunity would
come of bettering yourself. There are patronages to be had, if nothing better,
paid offices which carry no obligation and no loss of prestige indeed, the
reverse. I could become a burgess any day if it pleased me, but at present it
pleases me to keep out of the political field. As for you"
    "As for me," said Francis, "I am
a gentleman and want no patronage either from gentlemen or others."
    He said it without emphasis, but the sting was
there. George smiled, but it was not the sort of observation he would be likely
to forget. Few people had the courage to make such remarks to him nowadays.
    Elizabeth made an impatient movement. "It's
surely not reasonable to quarrel when there is friendship - when there are
friendships to be had. Pride can go too far."
    "Talking of the Poldarks," Francis
went on, taking no notice of her. "I saw that other representative of the
name in Truro to-day. He didn't seem unduly depressed by his forth-coming
trial, though he was not anxious to discuss it with me. One can hardly blame
him."
    Francis bent again to speak to his son and the
others were silent.
    George eventually said: "I wish him an
acquittal at his trial, of course. But I don't think the outcome will affect
your good name, Francis. Am I my brother's keeper? Still less so, then, of a
cousin:"
    Elizabeth said: " What chance is there of
an acquittal, do you think?"
    "A lovely horse," said Francis gently
to Geoffrey Charles. "A lovely horse."
    "I don't see how there can be a clear acquittal,"
George said, dabbing his lips with a lace handkerchief and watching Elizabeth's
expression. "Ross was a free agent at the time of the wrecks. No one coerced
him into doing what he did."
    If one believes he did it"
    "Naturally. That will be for the court to
find. But the fact that he has treated the law with contempt on a number