Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/36

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26
THE TENANT

CHAPTER II.


A SCHEME OF ESCAPE.


My greatest source of uneasiness, in this time of trial, was my son, whom his father and his father's friends delighted to encourage in all the embryo vices a little child can show, and to instruct in all the evil habits he could acquire—in a word, to "make a man of him " was one of their staple amusements; and I need say no more to justify my alarm on his account, and my determination to deliver him at any hazard from the hands of such instructors. I first attempted to keep him always with me or in the