Page:Shirley (1849 Volume 1).djvu/81

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MR. YORKE.
69

lines, had a most anti-British and anti-Yorkshire look. These points seem frivolous, unlikely to influence a character like Yorke’s; but, the fact is, they recalled old, perhaps pleasurable associations; they brought back his travelling, his youthful days. He had seen, amidst Italian cities and scenes, faces like Moore’s; he had heard, in Parisian cafés and theatres, voices like his; he was young then, and when he looked at, and listened to the alien, he seemed young again.

Secondly, he had known Moore’s father, and had had dealings with him; that was a more substantial, though by no means a more agreeable tie; for, as his firm had been connected with Moore’s in business, it had also, in some measure, been implicated in its losses.

Thirdly, he had found Robert himself a sharp man of business. He saw reason to anticipate that he would in the end, by one means or another, make money, and he respected both his resolution and acuteness, perhaps, also, his hardness. A fourth circumstance which drew them together was that of Mr. Yorke being one of the guardians of the minor on whose estate Hollow’s-mill was situated; consequently Moore, in the course of his alterations and improvements, had frequent occasion to consult him.

As to the other guest now present in Mr. Yorke’s parlour, Mr. Helstone, between him and his host there existed a double antipathy; the antipathy of