Go to your sate wid impunity, and
tell your dacent mother I was inquiring for her."
Such, indeed, was a tolerably correct view of Frank's character. He was
quiet, inoffensive, laborious, and punctual; though not very social or
communicative, yet he was both well-tempered and warm-hearted, points
which could not, without considerable opportunities of knowing him, be
readily perceived. Having undertaken the accomplishment of an object, he
permitted no circumstance to dishearten or deter him in working out
his purpose; if he said it, he did it; for his word was a sufficient
guarantee that he would; his integrity was consequently respected,
and his resolution, when he expressed it, was seldom disputed by his
companions, who knew that in general it was inflexible. After what we
have said, it is scarcely necessary to add that he was both courageous
and humane.
These combinations of character frequently occur. Many a man not
remarkable for those qualities of the head that impress themselves most
strikingly upon the world, is nevertheless gifted with those excellent
principles of the heart which, although without much show, and scarcely
any noise, go to work out the most useful purposes of life. Arthur, on
the contrary, was a contrast to his brother, and a strong one, too, on
many points; his intellect was far superior to that of Frank's, but,
on the other hand, he by no means possessed his brother's steadiness or
resolution.
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