FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   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   >>   >|  
was about to speak to him when he startled her by dropping on his knees and praying aloud. "O merciful Powers, give me grace and strength to lead a healthy fearless life in this house." XIII The Dales were beginning to prosper now, but their first winter had been an anxious, difficult time. Dale had made a common mistake in his calculations, and experience soon taught him that what is known as good-will, the most delicate and sensitive of all trade-values, can not by a mere stroke of the pen be transferred from one person to another. Solid customers turned truant; the business went down with terrifying velocity; and old Bates, who loyally came day after day to advise and assist, spoke with sincere regret. "William, I never foretold this. I must see what can be done. I'll leave no stone unturned." And he trotted about, touting for his successor, tramping long miles to beg for a continuance of favors that had unexpectedly ceased, but usually returning sadly to confess that his efforts had again been fruitless. They were gloomy evening hours, when the old and the young man sat together in the office by the roadway; and at night Mavis used to hear her sleeping husband moan and groan so piteously that she sometimes felt compelled to wake him. "What is it?" Awakened thus, he would spring up with a hoarse cry, and be almost out of the bed before she was able to restrain him. "It's nothing, dear. Only you were in one of your bad dreams, and I simply couldn't let you go on being tormented." "That's right," he used to mutter sleepily. "I don't want to dream. I've enough that's real." "Don't you worry, dear old boy. You're going to pull through grand--in the end. I _know you are_. Besides, if not--then we'll try something else." She always murmured such consolatory phrases until he fell asleep once more. The fact was that Bates had been respected by the well-to-do and loved by the humble; and Dale, out here, remained an unknown quantity. Anything of his fame as postmaster that had traveled along these two miles from Rodchurch did not help him. He was not liked. He felt it in the air, a dull inactive hostility, when talking to gentlefolks' coachmen or giving orders to his own servants. The coachmen could take no pleasure in patronizing him, nor the men in working for him. Mr. Bates advised him once or twice to cultivate a gentler and more ingratiating method of dealing with the people in his employ.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
coachmen
 

gentler

 

sleepily

 

tormented

 

mutter

 
cultivate
 
advised
 

simply

 
people
 

hoarse


Awakened

 

spring

 
employ
 

restrain

 
dreams
 

couldn

 
ingratiating
 
method
 

dealing

 

Besides


unknown

 

remained

 

giving

 

quantity

 

Anything

 

orders

 

servants

 

humble

 

postmaster

 

traveled


hostility

 
Rodchurch
 

gentlefolks

 

talking

 

working

 
inactive
 

pleasure

 
asleep
 

respected

 
murmured

patronizing
 

consolatory

 
phrases
 
delicate
 

sensitive

 

mistake

 
common
 

calculations

 
experience
 

taught