In due time the Colonel reaped the reward of well-placed
affections. When his wife's inheritance fell in, he thought he had money
enough to give up trade, and therefore sold out his "store," called in
some dialects of the English language shop, and his business.
Life became pretty hard work to him, of course, as soon as he had nothing
particular to do. Country people with money enough not to have to work
are in much more danger than city people in the same condition. They get
a specific look and character, which are the same in all the villages
where one studies them. They very commonly fall into a routine, the
basis of which is going to some lounging-place or other, a bar-room, a
reading-room, or something of the kind. They grow slovenly in dress, and
wear the same hat forever. They have a feeble curiosity for news
perhaps, which they take daily as a man takes his bitters, and then fall
silent and think they are thinking. But the mind goes out under this
regimen, like a fire without a draught; and it is not very strange, if
the instinct of mental self-preservation drives them to brandy-and-water,
which makes the hoarse whisper of memory musical for a few brief moments,
and puts a weak leer of promise on the features of the hollow-eyed
future.
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