Griffith Gaunt; or, Jealousy: Volumes 1 to 3 (of 3)Reade, Charles
General
Griffith Gaunt; or, Jealousy: Volumes 1 to 3 (of 3)
Reade, Charles
Bigamy -- Fiction; English fiction -- 19th century
Then the gentleman and his servant looked one another silently in the
face, and what with their standing in the same attitude and being both
excited and earnest, the truth must be owned, a certain family likeness
came out. Certainly, their eyes were quite unlike. Leicester had his
gipsy mother's: black, keen, and restless. Gaunt had his mother's:
brown, calm, and steady. But the two men had the same stature, the same
manly mould and square shoulders; and, though Leicester's cheek was
brown as a berry, his forehead was singularly white for a man in his
rank of life, and over his left temple, close to the roots of the hair,
was an oblong mole as black as ink, that bore a close resemblance in
appearance and position to his master's.
"Tom Leicester; I have been insulted."
"That won't pass, sir. Who is the man?"
"One that I cannot call out like a gentleman, and yet I must not lay on
him with my cane, or I am like to get the sack, as well as my servants.
'Tis the Popish priest, lad; Brother Leonard, own brother to Old Kick;
he has got our Dame's ear, she cannot say him 'nay.' She is turning
away all my people, and filling the house with Papists, to please him.
And when I interfered, she as good as told me I should go next; and so
I shall, I or else that priest."
This little piece of exaggeration fired Tom Leicester. "Say ye so,
Squire? then just you whisper a word in my ear, and George and I will
lay that priest by the heels, and drag him through the horse-pond. He
won't come here to trouble you after that, I know."
Gaunt's eyes flashed triumph. "A friend in need is a friend indeed,"
said he. "Ay, you are right, lad. There must be no broken bones, and
no bloodshed; the horse-pond is the very thing: and if she discharges
you for it, take no heed of her. You shall never leave Hernshaw Castle
for that good deed; or, if you do, I'll go with you; for the world it
is wide, and I'll never live a servant in the house where I have been
a master." They then put their heads together and concerted the means
by which the priest at his very next visit was to be decoyed into the
neighbourhood of the horse-pond.
And then they parted, and Griffith went to the "Red Lion." And a pair
of black eyes that had slily watched this singular interview from an
upper window, withdrew quietly; and soon after, Tom Leicester found
himself face to face with their owner, the sight of whom always made
his heart beat a little faster.
Caroline Ryder had been rather cold to him of late; it was therefore
a charming surprise when she met him, all wreathed in smiles, and,
drawing him apart, began to treat him like a bosom friend, and tell him
what had passed between the master, and her and Jane. Confidence begets
confidence; and so Tom told her in turn that the Squire and the Dame
had come to words over it. "However," said he, "'tis all the priest's
fault; but bide awhile, all of ye."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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