The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quality of Mercy, by W. D. Howells

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Title: The Quality of Mercy

Author: W. D. Howells

Release Date: September 27, 2009 [EBook #30108]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE QUALITY OF MERCY

A NOVEL

BY W. D. HOWELLS

AUTHOR OF "AN IMPERATIVE DUTY" "ANNIE KILBURN" "A HAZARD OF NEW
FORTUNES" ETC.

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1892

THE QUALITY OF MERCY.

PART FIRST.

I.

Northwick's man met him at the station with the cutter. The train was a
little late, and Elbridge was a little early; after a few moments of
formal waiting, he began to walk the clipped horses up and down the
street. As they walked they sent those quivers and thrills over their
thin coats which horses can give at will; they moved their heads up and
down, slowly and easily, and made their bells jangle noisily together;
the bursts of sound evoked by their firm and nervous pace died back in
showers and falling drops of music. All the time Elbridge swore at them
affectionately, with the unconscious profanity of the rustic Yankee
whose lot has been much cast with horses. In the halts he made at each
return to the station, he let his blasphemies bubble sociably from him
in response to the friendly imprecations of the three or four other
drivers who were waiting for the train; they had apparently no other
parlance. The drivers of the hotel 'bus and of the local express wagon
were particular friends; they gave each other to perdition at every
other word; a growing boy, who had come to meet Mr. Gerrish, the
merchant, with the family sleigh, made himself a fountain of meaningless
maledictions; the public hackman, who admired Elbridge almost as much as
he respected Elbridge's horses (they were really Northwick's, but