light his pipe, instead of going about his
business. Jem Rodney was the man--there was ease in the thought. Jem
could be found and made to restore the money: Marner did not want to
punish him, but only to get back his gold which had gone from him, and
left his soul like a forlorn traveller on an unknown desert. The
robber must be laid hold of. Marner's ideas of legal authority were
confused, but he felt that he must go and proclaim his loss; and the
great people in the village--the clergyman, the constable, and Squire
Cass--would make Jem Rodney, or somebody else, deliver up the stolen
money. He rushed out in the rain, under the stimulus of this hope,
forgetting to cover his head, not caring to fasten his door; for he
felt as if he had nothing left to lose. He ran swiftly, till want of
breath compelled him to slacken his pace as he was entering the village
at the turning close to the Rainbow.

The Rainbow, in Marner's view, was a place of luxurious resort for rich
and stout husbands, whose wives had superfluous stores of linen; it was
the place where he was likely to find the powers and dignities of
Raveloe, and where he could most speedily make his loss public. He
lifted the latch, and turned into the bright bar or kitchen on the
right hand, where the less lofty customers of the house were in the
habit of assembling, the parlour on the left being reserved for the
more select society in which Squire Cass frequently enjoyed the double
pleasure of conviviality and condescension. But the parlour was dark
to-night, the chief personages who ornamented its circle being all at
Mrs. Osgood's birthday dance, as Godfrey Cass was. And in consequence
of this, the party on the high-screened seats in the kitchen was more
numerous than usual; several personages, who would otherwise have been
admitted into the parlour and enlarged the opportunity of hectoring and
condescension for their betters, being content this evening to vary
their enjoyment by taking their spirits-and-water where they could
themselves hector and condescend in company that called for beer.

CHAPTER VI

The conversation, which was at a high pitch of animation when Silas
approached the door of the Rainbow, had, as usual, been slow and
intermittent when the company first assembled. The pipes began to be
puffed in a silence which had an air of severity; the more important
customers, who drank spirits and sat nearest the fire, staring at each
other as i