ent between these two pale faces, silent and awful.
Then he faced his wife. "You vile wretch!" he cried: "so you _buy_ your
own dishonor, and mine." He raised his hand high over her head; she
never winced. "O, but for my oath, I'd lay you dead at my feet! But no;
I'll not hang for a priest and a wanton. So, this is the thing you love,
and pay it to love you." And with all the mad inconsistency of rage,
which mixes small things and great, he tore the purse out of Leonard's
hand: then seized him felly by the throat.
At that the high spirit of Mrs. Gaunt gave way to abject terror. "O
mercy! mercy!" she cried; "it is all a mistake." And she clung to his
knees.
He spurned her furiously away. "Don't touch me, woman," he cried, "or
you are dead. Look at this!" And in a moment, with gigantic strength and
fury, he dashed the priest down at her feet. "I know ye, ye proud,
wanton devil!" he cried; "love the thing you have seen me tread upon!
love it--if ye can." And he literally trampled upon the poor priest with
both feet.
Leonard shrieked for mercy.
"None, in this world or the next," roared Griffith; but the next moment
he took fright at himself. "God!" he cried, "I must go or kill. Live and
be damned forever, the pair of ye." And with this he fled from them,
grinding his teeth and beating the air with his clenched fists.
He darted to the stable-yard, sprang on his horse, and galloped away
from Hernshaw Castle, with the face, the eyes, the gestures, the
incoherent mutterings of a raving Bedlamite.
WHAT WILL IT COST US?
If we take the arm of Mr. Smith, who is one of many perplexed at this
time by the cost of living, and go round with him to rebuke the
tradesmen who oppress and devour him by overcharges of every kind, we
shall find these obdurate persons very quick upon their defence, and
full of admirable justification of their supposed extortion.
The wicked grocer, who in these piping times of peace makes Mr. Smith
pay twenty cents a pound for sugar, fifty-five cents for coffee, and a
dollar and a half for tea, replies, when reproached with his
heartlessness, that Mr. Smith gives him depreciated paper, not gold, for
his sugar, while he must pay the importer for prime cost, freight, and
duty, with the added premium on gold, and the importer's profit on the
aggregate, as well as the new duty on refining; and that as to coffee,
it has actually risen in price at Java through the Dutch government's
monopol
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