The Marsh and the Flood

His father allowed him a liberal pocket-money, besides which
he had a sort of post as assistant to his chief. Then from time
to time the young man appeared at the Marsh, curiously
attractive, well-dressed, reserved, having by nature a subtle,
refined manner. And he set the change in the farm.

Fred, the younger brother, was a Brangwen, large-boned,
blue-eyed, English. He was his father's very son, the two men,
father and son, were supremely at ease with one another. Fred
was succeeding to the farm.

Between the elder brother and the younger existed an almost
passionate love. Tom watched over Fred with a woman's poignant
attention and self-less care. Fred looked up to Tom as to
something miraculous, that which he himself would aspire to be,
were he great also.

So that after Anna's departure, the Marsh began to take on a
new tone. The boys were gentlemen; Tom had a rare nature and had
risen high. Fred was sensitive and fond of reading, he pondered
Ruskin and then the Agnostic writings. Like all the Brangwens,
he was very much a thing to himself, though fond of people, and
indulgent to them, having an exaggerated respect for them.

There was a rather uneasy friendship between him and one of
the young Hardys at the Hall. The two households were different,
yet the young men met on shy terms of equality.

It was young Tom Brangwen, with his dark lashes and beautiful
colouring, his soft, inscrutable nature, his strange repose and
his informed air, added to his position in London, who seemed to
emphasize the superior foreign element in the Marsh. When he
appeared, perfectly dressed, as if soft and affable, and yet
quite removed from everybody, he created an uneasiness in
people, he was reserved in the minds of the Cossethay and
Ilkeston acquaintances to a different, remote world.