The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
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
gypsy 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.
'T is the Popish priest, lad; Brother Leonard, own brother to Old Nick;
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 neighborhood of
the horse-pond.
And then they parted, and Griffith went to the "Red Lion." And a pair of
black eyes that had slyly 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, "'t is all the priest's
fault: but bide awhile, all of ye."
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