FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  
grand match it was. But she was a pretty, notable girl, and nursed him, so I hear, in an illness; but it was all before we came from the other side of Bath.' 'What do you mean? What is the Squire's name?' 'Bayfield, of course, of Rock House, six or seven miles off Binegar way. The other sister lives with Mrs Henderson, who had a seizure just about the time Farmer Palmer died. She was a fine ladyish person, and things would have gone to wrack and ruin if Miss Palmer had not gone to her. She has been like a mother to the girls, and taught them lots of things. Two are out in service, and one in Mrs Hannah More's school.' Jack turned away, the woman calling after him,-- 'Come in and rest, sir, and take a cup of cider. You look very tired.' But Jack shook his head and set off at a quick pace towards his mother's house. No one recognised him; he was bronzed with exposure to the air, and his face was deeply lined with care, so that he looked prematurely old. His thick curly hair was streaked with grey, and his huge frame was a little bent, as he leaned heavily on his stick. The news he had heard filled his heart with strangely mixed feelings. The Squire was alive, the great burden of manslaughter, which had lain so heavily upon him for ten long years of exile, was removed. But Bryda had married him. Of course he saw it all--desire in her part to atone for what he had done for her sake. Did not the woman say she had nursed him through an illness? Yes, it was all plain--Bryda was lost to him for ever. He could not make up his mind to see _her_, but he would like to see Betty, and so he walked on slowly towards his mother's house. He felt more like a man in a dream as he passed all the familiar objects on the road--all associated with the love of his whole life. A high gig passed him at a quick trot. Looking up, he recognised his brother, his red hair gleaming in the sunshine; but he did not see him, or, if he saw him, did not recognise him. 'He looks prosperous, anyhow,' Jack thought, as he looked back at the cart wheeling swiftly down the road. The children at a few cottage doors looked up from their play to gaze at the traveller. 'They don't know me. No one knows,' he thought bitterly. Then he remembered that the children of ten years ago were men and women now. 'How could these little things know him? Betty won't know me,' he said, 'like as not. Well, I must see her. I must hear what she can tell me, and
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  



Top keywords:
things
 

mother

 

looked

 

Palmer

 

thought

 
recognised
 
passed
 

nursed

 
children
 

heavily


Squire

 

illness

 
walked
 

manslaughter

 
slowly
 

removed

 
married
 
desire
 

traveller

 

cottage


bitterly

 

remembered

 

swiftly

 

wheeling

 

objects

 

familiar

 

prosperous

 

recognise

 

burden

 

Looking


brother

 
gleaming
 

sunshine

 

deeply

 

Farmer

 
ladyish
 

person

 
Henderson
 

seizure

 
taught

sister
 

pretty

 
notable
 
Binegar
 

Bayfield

 

service

 
streaked
 

prematurely

 
strangely
 

feelings