These are a bit larger chunks then usual.
'Measter,' said he, stopping his employer in his quick resolved walk,
and causing that gentleman to look up with a sudden annoyed start, as if
his thoughts had been far away.
'Have yo' heerd aught of Miss Marget lately?'
'Miss—who?' replied Mr. Thornton.
'Miss Marget—Miss Hale—th' oud parson's daughter—yo known who I mean
well enough, if yo'll only think a bit—' (there was nothing
disrespectful in the tone in which this was said).
'Oh yes!' and suddenly, the wintry frost-bound look of care had left Mr.
Thornton's face, as if some soft summer gale had blown all anxiety away
from his mind; and though his mouth was as much compressed as before,
his eyes smiled out benignly on his questioner.
'She's my landlord now, you know, Higgins. I hear of her through her
agent here, every now and then. She's well and among friends—thank you,
Higgins.' That 'thank you' that lingered after the other words, and yet
came with so much warmth of feeling, let in a new light to the acute
Higgins. It might be but a will-o'-th'-wisp, but he thought he would
follow it and ascertain whither it would lead him.
'And she's not getten married, measter?'
'Not yet.' The face was cloudy once more. 'There is some talk of it, as
I understand, with a connection of the family.'
'Then she'll not be for coming to Milton again, I reckon.'
'No!'
'Stop a minute, measter.' Then going up confidentially close, he said,
'Is th' young gentleman cleared?' He enforced the depth of his
intelligence by a wink of the eye, which only made things more
mysterious to Mr. Thornton.
'Th' young gentleman, I mean—Master Frederick, they ca'ad him—her
brother as was over here, yo' known.'
'Over here.'
'Ay, to be sure, at th' missus's death. Yo' need na be feared of my
telling; for Mary and me, we knowed it all along, only we held our
peace, for we got it through Mary working in th' house.'
'And he was over. It was her brother!'
North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell
We were coming home from evensong, Kitty and I. (I am anticipating, for she
was still ‘Miss Schuyler’ then, but never
mind.) We were walking through the
fields, while Mrs. Benedict and Aunt
Celia were driving. As we came across
a corner of the bit of meadow land that
joins the stable and the garden, we heard
a muffled roar, and as we looked around
we saw a creature with tossing horns and
waving tail making for us, head down,
eyes flashing. Kitty gave a shriek. We
chanced to be near a pair of low bars. I
hadn’t been a college athlete for nothing.
I swung Kitty over the bars, and jumped
after her. But she, not knowing in her
fright where she was nor what she was
doing, supposing also that the mad creature,
like the villain in the play, would ‘still
pursue her,’ flung herself bodily into my
arms, crying, ‘Jack! Jack! save me!
~
It was twilight here in Canterbury, and
we were sitting on the vine-shaded veranda
of Aunt Celia’s lodging. Kitty’s head was
on my shoulder. There is something very
queer about that; when Kitty’s head is on
my shoulder, I am not capable of any consecutive
train of thought. When she puts
it there I see stars, then myriads of stars,
then, oh! I can’t begin to enumerate the
steps by which ecstasy mounts to delirium;
but, at all events, any operation
which demands exclusive use of the intellect
is beyond me at these times. Still,
I gathered my stray wits together, and
said:
‘Kitty!’
‘Yes, Jack?’
‘Now that nothing but death or marriage
can separate us, I have something to confess
to you.’
‘Yes,’ she said serenely, ‘I know
what you are going to say. He was a
cow.’
I lifted her head from my shoulder
sternly, and gazed into her childlike, candid
eyes.
‘You mountain of deceit! How long
have you known about it?’
‘Ever since the first. Oh, Jack, stop
looking at me in that way! Not the very
first, not when I—not when you—not
when we—no, not then, but the next
morning, I said to Farmer Hendry, “I
wish you would keep your savage bull
chained up while we are here; Aunt Celia
is awfully afraid of them, especially those
that go mad, like yours!” “Lor’, miss!”
said Farmer Hendry, “he haven’t been
pastured here for three weeks. I keep him
six mile away. There ben’t nothing but
gentle cows in the home medder.” But I
didn’t think that you knew, you secretive
person! I dare say you planned the whole
thing in advance, in order to take advantage
of my fright!’
‘Never! I am incapable of such an
unnecessary subterfuge! Besides, Kitty,
I could not have made an accomplice of
a cow, you know.’
‘Then,’ she said, with great dignity, ‘if
you had been a gentleman and a man of
honour, you would have cried, “Unhand
me, girl! You are clinging to me under
a misunderstanding!”’
A Cathedral Courtship by Kate D. Wiggins
Mac hastened to explain, to load himself with reproaches, and to beg her
not to die on any account, for Charlie's lecture had made a deep
impression on the poor boy's mind.
"I didn't know there was any danger of my dying," and Rose looked up at
him with a solemn expression in her great eyes.
"Oh, I hope not; but people do sometimes go suddenly, you know, and I
couldn't rest till I'd asked you to forgive me," faltered Mac, thinking
that Rose looked very like an angel already, with the golden hair loose on
the pillow, and the meekness of suffering on her little white face.
"I don't think I shall die; uncle won't let me; but if I do, remember I
forgave you."
She looked at him with a tender light in her eyes, and, seeing how
pathetic his dumb grief was, she added softly, drawing his head down, "I
wouldn't kiss you under the mistletoe, but I will now, for I want you to
be sure I do forgive and love you just the same."
That quite upset poor Mac; he could only murmur his thanks and get out of
the room as fast as possible, to grope his way to the couch at the far end
of the hall, and lie there till he fell asleep, worn out with trying not
to "make a baby" of himself.
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
