FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>   >|  
ttle of the man. We passed each other from time to time in the street of Porthlooe, and he accosted me with a politeness to which, though distrusting him, I felt bound to respond. But he never offered conversation, and our next interview was wholly of my seeking. One evening towards the close of his second year at Porthlooe, and about the date of his purchase of the _Providence_ schooner, I happened to be walking homewards from a visit to a sick parishioner, when at Cove Bottom, by the miller's footbridge, I passed two figures--a man and a woman standing there and conversing in the dusk. I could not help recognising them; and halfway up the hill I came to a sudden resolution and turned back. "Mr. Laquedem," said I, approaching them, "I put it to you, as a man of education and decent feeling, is this quite honourable?" "I believe, sir," he answered courteously enough, "I can convince you that it is. But clearly this is neither the time nor the place." "You must excuse me," I went on, "but I have known Julia since she was a child." To this he made an extraordinary answer. "No longer?" he asked; and added, with a change of tone, "Had you not forbidden me the vicarage, sir, I might have something to say to you." "If it concern the girl's spiritual welfare--or yours--I shall be happy to hear it." "In that case," said he, "I will do myself the pleasure of calling upon you--shall we say to-morrow evening?" He was as good as his word. At nine o'clock next evening--about the hour of his former visit--Frances ushered him into my parlour. The similarity of circumstance may have suggested to me to draw the comparison; at any rate I observed then for the first time that rapid ageing of his features which afterwards became a matter of common remark. The face was no longer that of the young man who had entered my parlour two years before; already some streaks of grey showed in his black locks, and he seemed even to move wearily. "I fear you are unwell," said I, offering a chair. "I have reason to believe," he answered, "that I am dying." And then, as I uttered some expression of dismay and concern, he cut me short. "Oh, there will be no hurry about it! I mean, perhaps, no more than that all men carry about with them the seeds of their mortality--so why not I? But I came to talk of Julia Constantine, not of myself." "You may guess, Mr. Laquedem, that as her vicar, and having known her and her affliction
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

evening

 

Laquedem

 
parlour
 

longer

 

concern

 
answered
 

passed

 
Porthlooe
 
circumstance
 

Constantine


suggested
 

similarity

 

comparison

 

mortality

 

observed

 

ushered

 

pleasure

 

calling

 

affliction

 
morrow

Frances
 

uttered

 

showed

 
streaks
 
expression
 

unwell

 

offering

 
wearily
 

dismay

 

matter


reason
 

ageing

 

features

 
common
 

remark

 

entered

 

parishioner

 

Bottom

 

homewards

 
walking

purchase

 
Providence
 

schooner

 
happened
 
miller
 

recognising

 
halfway
 

conversing

 

footbridge

 
figures