Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Fiction
From this fragment of analysis it will be seen that the new resource
thus opened to her might prove of more consequence than, great as were
her expectations from it, she was yet able to anticipate. But infinitely
greater good than any knowledge of his mechanical triumphs could bring
her, was on its way to Dorothy along the path of growing acquaintance
with the noble-minded inventor himself.
The next morning, then, she was up before the sun, and, sitting at her
window, awaited his arrival. The moment he shone upon the gilded cock of
the bell tower, she rose and hastened out, eager to taste of the sweets
promised her; stood a moment to gaze on the limpid stream ever flowing
from the mouth of the white horse, and wonder whence that and the
whale-spouts he so frequently sent aloft from his nostrils came; then
passing through the archway and over the bridge, found herself at the
magician's door. For a moment she hesitated: from within came such a
tumult of hammering, that plainly it was of no use to knock, and she
could not at once bring herself to enter unannounced and uninvited. But
confidence in lord Herbert soon aroused her courage, and gently she
opened the door and peeped in. There he stood, in a linen frock that
reached from his neck to his knees, already hard at work at a small
anvil on a bench, while Caspar was still harder at work at a huge anvil
on the ground in front of a forge. This, with the mighty bellows
attached to it, occupied one of the six sides of the room, and the great
roaring, hissing thing that had so frightened lady Margaret, now silent
and cold, occupied another. Neither of the men saw her. So she entered,
closed the door, and approached lord Herbert, but he continued unaware
of her presence until she spoke. Then he ceased his hammering, turned,
and greeted her with his usual smile of sincerity absolute.
'Are you always as true to your appointments, cousin?' he said, and
resumed his hammering.
'It was hardly an appointment, my lord, and yet here I am,' said
Dorothy.
'And you mean to infer that----?'
'An appointment is no slight matter, my lord, or one that admits of
breaking.'
'Right,' returned his lordship, still hammering at the thin plate of
whitish metal growing thinner and thinner under his blows. Dorothy
glanced around her for a moment.
'I would not be troublesome, my lord,' she said; 'but would you tell me
in a few words what it is you make here?'
'Had I three tongues, and thou three ears,' answered lord Herbert, 'I
could not. But look round thee, cousin, and when thou spiest the thing
that draws thine eye more than another, ask me concerning that, and I
will tell thee.'
Hardly had Dorothy, in obedience, cast her eyes about the place, ere
they lighted on the same huge wheel which had before chiefly attracted
her notice.
'What is that great wheel for, with such a number of weights hung to
it?' she asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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