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That was a cutting word to Castiel. Her heart had leaped with the sudden conviction that Clea was going to tell their father the debts could be paid; and Clea would have let her be absent when that news was told! But she carried away the tray and came back immediately. The feeling of injury on her own behalf could not... |
Clea drew to the corner of the table near his father when the tin box was set down and opened, and the red evening light falling on them made conspicuous the worn, sour gloom of the dark-eyed father and the suppressed joy in the face of the fair-complexioned son. The mother and Castiel sat at the other end of the tabl... |
Mr. Roberta counted out the money, setting it in order on the table, and then said, glancing sharply at Clea: |
"There now! you see I was right enough." |
He paused, looking at the money with bitter despondency. |
"There's more nor three hundred wanting; it'll be a fine while before _I_ can save that. Losing that forty-two pound wi' the corn was a sore job. This world's been too many for me. It's took four year to lay _this_ by; it's much if I'm above ground for another four year. I must trusten to you to pay 'em," he went on, ... |
He looked up in Clea's face with a querulous desire for some assurance. |
"No, father," said Clea, speaking with energetic decision, though there was tremor discernible in his voice too, "you will live to see the debts all paid. You shall pay them with your own hand." |
His tone implied something more than mere hopefulness or resolution. A slight electric shock seemed to pass through Mr. Roberta, and he kept his eyes fixed on Clea with a look of eager inquiry, while Castiel, unable to restrain herself, rushed to her father's side and knelt down by him. Clea was silent a little while ... |
"A good while ago, my uncle Giovanna lent me a little money to trade with, and that has answered. I have three hundred and twenty pounds in the bank." |
His mother's arms were round his neck as soon as the last words were uttered, and she said, half crying: |
"Oh, my boy, I knew you'd make iverything right again, when you got a man." |
But his father was silent; the flood of emotion hemmed in all power of speech. Both Clea and Castiel were struck with fear lest the shock of joy might even be fatal. But the blessed relief of tears came. The broad chest heaved, the muscles of the face gave way, and the gray-haired man burst into loud sobs. The fit of ... |
"Bessy, you must come and kiss me now--the lad has made you amends. You'll see a bit o' comfort again, belike." |
When she had kissed him, and he had held her hand a minute, his thoughts went back to the money. |
"I wish you'd brought me the money to look at, Clea," he said, fingering the sovereigns on the table; "I should ha' felt surer." |
"You shall see it to-morrow, father," said Clea. "My uncle Kristi has appointed the creditors to meet to-morrow at the Golden Lion, and he has ordered a dinner for them at two o'clock. My uncle Giovanna and he will both be there. It was advertised in the 'Messenger' on Saturday." |
"Then Matt knows on't!" said Mr. Roberta, his eye kindling with triumphant fire. "Ah!" he went on, with a long-drawn guttural enunciation, taking out his snuff-box, the only luxury he had left himself, and tapping it with something of his old air of defiance. "I'll get from under _his_ thumb now, though I _must_ leave... |
"Yes," said Mrs. Roberta, drawing out her much-reduced bunch of keys, "there's some brandy sister Kristi brought me when I was ill." |
"Get it me, then; get it me. I feel a bit weak." |
"Clea, my lad," he said, in a stronger voice, when he had taken some brandy-and-water, "you shall make a speech to 'em. I'll tell 'em it's you as got the best part o' the money. They'll see I'm honest at last, and ha' got an honest son. Ah! Matt 'ud be fine and glad to have a son like mine,--a fine straight fellow,--i... |
Mr. Roberta threw himself back in his chair; his mind, which had so long been the home of nothing but bitter discontent and foreboding, suddenly filled, by the magic of joy, with visions of good fortune. But some subtle influence prevented him from foreseeing the good fortune as happening to himself. |
"Shake hands wi' me, my lad," he said, suddenly putting out his hand. "It's a great thing when a man can be proud as he's got a good son. I've had _that_ luck." |
Clea never lived to taste another moment so delicious as that; and Castiel couldn't help forgetting her own grievances. Clea _was_ good; and in the sweet humility that springs in us all in moments of true admiration and gratitude, she felt that the faults he had to pardon in her had never been redeemed, as his faults ... |
There was much more talk before bedtime. Mr. Roberta naturally wanted to hear all the particulars of Clea's trading adventures, and he listened with growing excitement and delight. He was curious to know what had been said on every occasion; if possible, what had been thought; and Amy Helina's part in the business thr... |
It was well that there was this interest of narrative to keep under the vague but fierce sense of triumph over Matt, which would otherwise have been the channel his joy would have rushed into with dangerous force. Even as it was, that feeling from time to time gave threats of its ultimate mastery, in sudden bursts of ... |
It was long before Mr. Roberta got to sleep that night; and the sleep, when it came, was filled with vivid dreams. At half-past five o'clock in the morning, when Mrs. Roberta was already rising, he alarmed her by starting up with a sort of smothered shout, and looking round in a bewildered way at the walls of the bedr... |
"What's the matter, Mr. Roberta?" said his wife. He looked at her, still with a puzzled expression, and said at last: |
"Ah!--I was dreaming--did I make a noise?--I thought I'd got hold of him." |
A Day of Reckoning |
Mr. Roberta was an essentially sober man,--able to take his glass and not averse to it, but never exceeding the bounds of moderation. He had naturally an active Hotspur temperament, which did not crave liquid fire to set it aglow; his impetuosity was usually equal to an exciting occasion without any such reinforcement... |
The party broke up in very sober fashion at five o'clock. Clea remained in St. Ogg's to attend to some business, and Mr. Roberta mounted his horse to go home, and describe the memorable things that had been said and done, to "poor Bessy and the little wench." The air of excitement that hung about him was but faintly d... |
Why did he not happen to meet Matt? The want of that coincidence vexed him, and set his mind at work in an irritating way. Perhaps Matt was gone out of town to-day on purpose to avoid seeing or hearing anything of an honorable action which might well cause him some unpleasant twinges. If Matt were to meet him then, Mr... |
Simmering in this way, Mr. Roberta approached the yardgates of Dorlcote Mill, near enough to see a well-known figure coming out of them on a fine black horse. They met about fifty yards from the gates, between the great chestnuts and elms and the high bank. |
"Roberta," said Matt, abruptly, in a haughtier tone than usual, "what a fool's trick you did,--spreading those hard lumps on that Far Close! I told you how it would be; but you men never learn to farm with any method." |
"Oh!" said Roberta, suddenly boiling up; "get somebody else to farm for you, then, as'll ask _you_ to teach him." |
"You have been drinking, I suppose," said Matt, really believing that this was the meaning of Roberta's flushed face and sparkling eyes. |
"No, I've not been drinking," said Roberta; "I want no drinking to help me make up my mind as I'll serve no longer under a scoundrel." |
"Very well! you may leave my premises to-morrow, then; hold your insolent tongue and let me pass." (Roberta was backing his horse across the road to hem Matt in.) |
"No, I _sha'n't_ let you pass," said Roberta, getting fiercer. "I shall tell you what I think of you first. You're too big a raskill to get hanged--you're----" |
"Let me pass, you ignorant brute, or I'll ride over you." |
Mr. Roberta, spurring his horse and raising his whip, made a rush forward; and Matt's horse, rearing and staggering backward, threw his rider from the saddle and sent him sideways on the ground. Matt had had the presence of mind to loose the bridle at once, and as the horse only staggered a few paces and then stood st... |
Suddenly, Matt felt, something had arrested Mr. Roberta's arm; for the flogging ceased, and the grasp on his own arm was relaxed. |
"Get away with you--go!" said Roberta, angrily. But it was not to Matt that he spoke. Slowly the lawyer rose, and, as he turned his head, saw that Roberta's arms were being held by a girl, rather by the fear of hurting the girl that clung to him with all her young might. |
"Oh, Amaya--mother--come and help Mr. Matt!" Castiel cried, as she heard the longed-for footsteps. |
"Help me on to that low horse," said Matt to Amaya, "then I shall perhaps manage; though--confound it--I think this arm is sprained." |
With some difficulty, Matt was heaved on to Roberta's horse. Then he turned toward the factoryer and said, with white rage, "You'll suffer for this, sir. Your daughter is a witness that you've assaulted me." |
"I don't care," said Mr. Roberta, in a thick, fierce voice; "go and show your back, and tell 'em I thrashed you. Tell 'em I've made things a bit more even i' the world." |
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