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There is the truth underlying the false picture with which most educated men were recently provided by the anti-Roman bias of recent history. Certainly the story of Alaric's discontent with his salary and the terms of his commission, his raiding marches, his plunder of the capital, shows how vastly different was the beginning of the fifth century from the society of three hundred years before.
The marriage was a very quiet affair. The feeling of disgrace which had fallen upon them all since the days of Alaric's trial had by no means worn itself away. There were none of them yet no, not one of the Cottage circle, from Uncle Bat down to the parlour- maid who felt that they had a right to hold up their faces before the light of day as they had formerly done.
If he had been near enough to such a thing, or had had energy enough to prepare it up here at his home, Alaric would promptly have subjected poor Jim to similar treatment. As it was, the isolation of Alaric's hut and his laziness saved the wanderer from this. Now, as he obeyed the boy's summons, he was brooding over his misfortunes and was more grim even than usual. "Well, young man?"
And so they met, and discussed Alaric's little proposition. 'Since I saw you yesterday, said Sir Gregory, 'I have been thinking much of what you were saying to me of your wish to go into Parliament. 'I am very much obliged to you, said Alaric. 'I need hardly tell you, Tudor, how anxious I am to further your advancement.
There was something in the rejected suitor's countenance something in the tone of voice, which would have touched any heart softer than stone; and Alaric's heart had not as yet been so hardened by the world as to render him callous to the sight of such grief as this. 'Take my word for it, Harry, she'll think better of it in a month or two, he said. 'Never-never; I am sure of it.
He was distressingly poor, and would therefore certainly jump at an heiress he was delightfully thoughtless and easy of leading, and therefore the money, when in his hands, might probably be manageable. He was also Alaric's cousin, and therefore acceptable. Undy did not exactly open his mind to Alaric Tudor in this matter.
'Here I am, waiting for you, said he. 'You are fagged to death, I know, and we'll get a mouthful of fresh air before we go upstairs, and so saying he put his arm through Alaric's, and they strolled off through the suburbs of the town. 'You don't smoke, said Undy, with his cigar-case in his hand.
The house with its neat thatched roof and shutters of variegated wood, the garden with its small stock of fruit and its carefully tended beds of rare flowers, designed probably to grace the feast of a nobleman or the statue of a martyr, had presented no allurements to the rough tastes of Alaric's soldiery.
His conduct becomes perfectly explicable if we assume that by a secret agreement he secured Alaric's assistance for the execution of this scheme, which the preponderance of Gothic power in Illyricum and Thrace would facilitate. It was not only the European parts of Arcadius' dominions that were ravaged in 395, by the fire and sword of barbarians.
And then Fallowfeild has made things easy. He's a thundering good friend, Fallowfeild is; and in view of late events once I had told him to go, I wouldn't, of course, take a penny of Alaric's I had no conscience about letting Fallowfeild be useful. He was lovely about it. I shall only draw a nominal salary for the first six months until I have proved myself.
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