cai might have
sat stiff and stern at the gate all day long for him and every day of
the year, if the refusal to rise with the rest and do him reverence had
been all the trouble between them. He knew that Mr Fleming had bitter
thoughts against him because of all that had befallen his son long ago,
and though he believed himself to have been no more guilty toward him
than others had been, he knew that they had all been guilty together,
and he had therefore submitted quietly, if not patiently, to the
constant rebuke which he felt, and which all Gershom felt, the old man's
stern silence to be. He could understand how the sight of him and his
prosperity should be an aggravation to the sorrow of this man, who did
not seem to be able to forget, and he had a sort of compassion for him
in his loss--not merely of the handsome, kindly lad who had gone away so
long ago, but of the man to which the much-loved Hugh might by this time
have grown. His desire to resent the father's manner to himself had
never been more than a momentary feeling and if he could have conferred
upon him some great benefit, and placed him under such obligation to him
as should be seen and acknowledged by all Gershom, he would gladly have
done so. Indeed he believed that in the terms agreed on by his father,
with regard to Mr Fleming's mortgage, such a benefit had been
conferred, and as he thought about it his anger grew.

For now Mr Fleming's unreasonable obstinacy in refusing to dispose of
his land seemed the only hindrance in the way of the new enterprise
which promised so well. If he had had the power to make him yield, he
would have exerted it to the uttermost, even if it would have ruined the
old man, instead of placing him and the children dependent on him above
the fear of want forever. But as yet he had no power, and before the
year should be out, when the law would allow him to take possession of
the land, the ruin which men were saying might fall on Mr Fleming,
might, nay must, fall on himself.

Ruin? Well, that was putting it strongly perhaps. But the delay would
cause loss and trouble terrible to anticipate--not to him only, but to
the whole town of Gershom--loss which years of common prosperity would
hardly make up for. Jacob rarely spoke of David Fleming or his
relations to him, but when he did so, this was the way he put it. The
prosperity of Gershom and of the country round was hindered by his
refusal to sell his land. But in his