FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54  
55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   >>   >|  
od face to face. But now a new feeling came to me. Had I not after all been a brute, and had I not acted like a maniac? For the look on her face made me love goodness and beauty. I could do nothing, however; my hands were numb, and my tongue was dry and parched. All I was capable of at this moment was to listen and to look into the fair maid's face, and feel a great longing that she might not despise me as Nick Tresidder evidently intended that she should. The crowd did not pelt me while she stood there; I think it was because there was something in her presence that hindered them. Every one could see at a glance that she was different from the host of laughing things that cared nothing for my disgrace. I waited eagerly for her to speak again; her words seemed to ease my pain, and to make me feel that I, too, was a man in spite of all I had suffered. "Jasper Pennington," she said, presently; "why, Pennington is the name of your house, Nick!" "Yes," replied Nick, savagely. "He's young, too," she continued, looking at me curiously, and yet with a pitying look in her eyes. Then I remembered I was twenty-one that day, and that my father had been dead barely two years. Thus, on my twenty-first birthday, I was pilloried as a vagabond and a street brawler, while this beauteous girl looked at me. "Where does he live?" she asked again, as though she were interested in me. "Up to a year ago he lived in St. Eve's parish," replied Nick. "He managed to stay by fraud on Elmwater Barton; he was a brute then, and tried to kill me. He would have succeeded, too, but for Jacob Buddle. I hope the man who flogs him will lay it on hard." She gave me one more look, and in it I saw wonder and pity and fear. Then she said, "Let us go away, Nick. I do not care to stay longer." "No, we will not go yet!" cried Nick; "let us see him get his lashes. He will be taken down in a few minutes. There, the constables are coming." I saw the tears start to her eyes, while her lips trembled, and at that moment I did not feel the sting of the lies Nick had told. The whipping-post was close to the place where the pillory had been set up, and I saw that the constable held the rope with which I was to be tied. Then two men came and unfastened the piece of wood which had confined my head and hands. At first I felt no strength either to hold up my head or to move my hands, but while they were untying my legs the blood began to flow more f
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54  
55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

twenty

 

replied

 

Pennington

 
moment
 
lashes
 

longer

 
feeling
 

Barton

 

Elmwater

 

parish


managed
 

Buddle

 

succeeded

 

confined

 

unfastened

 
strength
 

untying

 

trembled

 

coming

 
minutes

constables

 
pillory
 

constable

 

whipping

 

disgrace

 

waited

 

eagerly

 
things
 

laughing

 

parched


tongue

 

suffered

 

Jasper

 

glance

 

capable

 

intended

 

longing

 

Tresidder

 

evidently

 

presence


hindered

 

listen

 

street

 

brawler

 

beauteous

 

vagabond

 
pilloried
 

birthday

 

looked

 

despise