Read "Rulers of Kings" by Gertrude Atherton online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
During the following week Fessenden read little and was too amiably excited for battle. He had seen few strangers in that primeval wilderness -- no gentleman but his father; and Mr. Abbott had taken pains to admonish him that he was never to forget he was a gentleman -- to criticise his table manners, gait, and carriage. In the course of his last visit, after he had twice swept his son's elbows off the table and arrested his knife on its flight to the butter-dish, he had said, severely: "I am not raising you to be a congressman from a backwoods district. Without manners your morals might just as well be bad as good. I am no democrat. I believe in hard work, and above all things I despise the idle fools that rich fathers foist upon the world; but I equally despise the man who ever forgets he was born a gentleman. You were.
One reason why I have persuaded Stanley Morris to come here is that you may be reminded constantly that you are not to grow up a country lout, and disgrace -- your sister, when the time comes for you to meet. Do you think that small head can remember all this tiresome advice?"