A Widow's Tale, and Other StoriesOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
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A Widow's Tale, and Other Stories
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Fiction; Short stories
"That is so," said Roger, coming up to them with the portentous gravity
of a man who has something to conceal. "It is the short cut from
Grimston, where I've just been for my father. He is in full cry after
some excavations they have been making. You know his antiquarian turn;
and look here--I dare say it's some new manufactured antiquity from
Brummagem direct--no, not that," he said, with confusion, "I don't mean
that," dropping a little gold locket of very modern form and
resplendent newness. Murray stooped to pick it up, but was forestalled
by the owner, who snatched at it, raising a flushed and excited
countenance as he hid the toy in his hand. "It is this I mean," he
cried, taking an old coin out of his waistcoat pocket. Then he stood
facing the two young men uneasily. "I think it is the hottest day we
have had this season," he said.
It was not Abel's part to speak. He was himself too much agitated to do
so. He would have known the young squire anywhere, if he had met him at
the end of the world, he felt; and the sudden shock of recognition drove
out of his mind the more important question who the girl was. He bent
his head over the coin which Ridley held out in his hand. Why should not
he be recognised as easily as the other? He dared not face the defiant
yet abashed eyes with which the young squire stared at him, responding
with a hurried bow to Landale's introduction. But the coin was safe
ground; he peered at it, bending towards it as if he had been
short-sighted, and glad of the little learning that gave him something
to say. "Have you Roman remains here?" he said. "I think the coin is
genuine." Roger Ridley started slightly at the sound of his voice.
"That will please my father," he said, and looked at Murray again. There
was some thrill of likeness in the voice--a tone which recalled to him
the other voice which as yet had scarcely died out of his ear--a
fantastic likeness, no doubt suggested by his own imagination, which was
full of Lily. "I will tell him you vouch for it," he added, with a
smile, "and if he agrees with you (which he is sure to do, for one
always believes in Roman remains on one's own land), he will think you
an oracle. Bring Mr Murray to see the Castle, Charley. And good-bye, for
I must hurry home."
"Ay, ay, he'll hurry home now we have parted him from Lily," said
Charley, nodding his head. "You see for yourself. That is what I told
you. He will commit himself and do something foolish if he doesn't
mind."
"Who is she?" said Abel: his heart was thumping against his side with
many emotions. To have looked the young squire calmly in the face, whom
he knew so well, and to have borne his gaze, was surely enough for one
day.
"Oh, a country lass, I believe; the daughter of a woman up on the fells.
By the way, her name's Murray, like yours. It's partly a Gipsy name, you
know."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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